The Video Game Rumble
by LordryuTJ
Summary: 30 of some of gaming's finest, from the past and present, are given the opportunity to showcase their skills within the squared circle, in one of WWE's most iconic match types. [Rated T for - violence (blood and assorted weaponry), suggestive themes, swearing] [-Post-show posted-]
1. The Obligatory Pre-Match Hype Chapter

**The Video Game Rumble**

 **The Obligatory Pre-Match Hype Chapter**

 _ **30 of some of gaming's finest, from the past and present, are given the opportunity to showcase their skills within the squared circle, in one of WWE's most iconic match types.**_

 **Rated T for: Violence (blood and assorted weaponry), suggestive themes, swearing**

* * *

The scene opens in Midwest Manhattan, outside the titular Manhattan Center building – home to the Hammerstein Ballroom; itself a home to many moments of wrestling history. It's a late afternoon in mid-February, just a couple weeks after WWE's own Royal Rumble event.

In from the left enters Joey Styles, the recognizable 'Voice of ECW', appropriately coated in a casual suit for the lukewarm temperature out here.

"Thanks for tuning in, folks," the ECW announcer opens, "this is Joey Styles, here in Manhattan, New York, and tonight, a _very_ special event, one that pays tribute not just to the iconic WWE event, the Royal Rumble, but to the past, present and maybe even the _future_ of video games; tonight, 30 characters enter, and there will be one left standing in the very end. We are just moments away from getting started, but first, a closer look of some of the participants; we have some co-respondents with us within the Manhattan Center building with some entrants for some short interviews – a look at 'what's to come', as they say. Let's head in; Mean Gene, play us in..."

* * *

On cue, a cut from outside to inside the building, on a fairly simple-looking 'interview space' set, as the WWE Hall of Famer, "Mean" Gene Okerlund, still looking fairly healthy despite his old age, stands by with a mic in hand.

"Thank you, Joey," he says. "A couple thousand fans are waiting in the Hammerstein Ballroom for this Rumble spectacular; excitement is high for a legendary event – and speaking of 'legendary', I have with me a contestant who carries a lot of history in the video game industry. Please welcome, Pac-Man!"

Namco's iconic yellow ball of fun enters from the left, with his orange gloves and red boots on.

With Pac-Man in frame now, noticeably shorter than the interviewer, Mean Gene starts talking to the mascot. "Now, Mr. Pac-Man, you represent the old guard of arcade icons – what's your strategy in adapting to the tactics of the newer generations in the upcoming Rumble match?"

The microphone is with the Namco mascot, and he starts to speak. ...Unfortunately, all that could be heard from his dialogue was nothing but the 8-bit chomping noise, synced accordingly with his mouth opening and closing. This goes on for about 10 seconds, with the camera close on him, before it zooms back out to show the confusion on Mr. Okerlund's face.

The 75-year-old veteran interviewer responds professionally. "I'm... sorry, I don't think I quite got that."

A bit of a pause as Mean Gene looks up, over the guest's head, as if to recognize someone off-screen.

Indeed, someone different _does_ show up on-screen to join Pac-Man on the left side; a young woman, in fact, with a very intriguing choice of hair design from the two varying shades of pink, and an equally unorthodox attire involving a blue and pink dress and height-unevened stockings accompanying it.

Not feeling the best intention to interrupt, she smiles towards Okerlund, with white-gloved hands clenched together. "Pardon me for cutting in, but... I think I can decipher your guest's odd language.

She squats down to meet Pac-Man at eye level, as she sets out to translate. "He says he's happy to be given an opportunity to entertain, and that he's welcome to the newer generations of characters that are ever-growing. With so many decades under his belt, he's expecting to go the distance in this 'Rumble', and even if he doesn't win, he can say he was involved in a new page of history."

Once she finishes up, Pac-Man approves the oddly-dressed woman's statement as a faithful translation with a simple nod and smile.

"Well... thank you, young lady," Mean Gene appreciates the help, but then he has to ask. "Now, could you ask us, and everyone else watching, who _you_ are, by any chance?"

She responds. "You can call me Alisa; Alisa Bosconovitch.

"And I assume you are _also_ a participant?"

"Of course! With the skills my father transmitted into my system, I have high hopes for my survival."

Alisa waves goodbye as she simply exits stage-left, with Pac-Man following soon after. Mean Gene, on the other hand, starts off fine, but suddenly seems to feel puzzled by a _few_ choice words on what was said there.

"Wait, 'transmitted'? ' _System_ '? What on Earth—" He stops himself halfway and sighs, before looking back into the camera. "We'll be back with another contestant in a moment."

* * *

We cut from what was filmed on a professional camera to one that seems to be filmed on a phone being pointed down from its back towards the ceiling in selfie-cam mode. From this, we see a less-familiar face, but one you may recognize not just from the YouTube channel called newLEGACYinc., but from the mid/late 2000s era of Pro Wrestling Guerilla, around a random hallway.

"Hey there fans, this is Dino Winwood," he introduces himself. "I was making my way to the commentary booth to call some 'wrasslin', but I bumped into a couple people – first things first..."

He pans the camera down to show a brown-furred gorilla pulling a flexing pose over his shoulder. Fans of Nintendo will recognize this character very well, especially from the **DK** -decaled red tie.

"... _Look at this dude!_ " Dino proclaims, chuckling afterwards as Donkey Kong makes a couple more poses for the camera, just having a load of fun right now in the calm before the Rumble.

Dino continues, "Yeah, you talk about 'Pro Wrestling Gorillas'; bears are old news, now it's time for the big chimps to take a stand, motherfuckers!"

"And, uh, speaking of _big_..." Winwood swivels the phone around to somewhere else, where his face meets close with a woman's, ahem, _well-endowed_ chest, with the angle obscuring her face for a moment. "I can assure you, we got some _big dogs_ out here tonight, if you catch my drift!"

A hand-fan taps Dino on the chin and lifts him up to eye-level, revealing the face of the beauty to be the leading lady of the Shiranui clan.

"Don't get comfortable, big boy – there's only _one_ man for me," Mai teases the to-be-commentator of the night. "And when the night is done, everyone will know not to mess with Japan's best."

Dino looks to his phone camera. "Yeah, if you're looking for animals and tits galore, we got a lot of that shit! We got a lot of other stuff, too – stick around for more!"

The clip ends with a farewell wink from Mai – we'll be seeing her out in the ring later on tonight, for sure...

* * *

Back to the interview space, the camera focusing on Mean Gene with any guests already there not in view.

He says, "Well, thanks to Dino for being able to collaborate with us for this special event – we'll see you at the commentary booth for the Rumble, but for now-"

Okerlund is suddenly interrupted by deep, hearty laughter, as the camera zooms out at the same time as a trio of characters show up around the elder interviewer, one large guy and two young ladies who look damn near tiny in comparison. The three can be recognized as Overwatch operatives Reinhardt, Tracer and D. Va; and all three can be assumed to be a part of the Rumble. It's easy to notice Reinhardt's armor is looking different than usual, going for a somewhat lighter set and the lack of a helmet.

"An honor to be here for a showcase of combat!" Reinhardt's German accent authenticated his excited tone. "As fighters of the future, us Overwatch operatives have the guts and power to tackle with the rest of them! In that ring holds destiny, that which can only be held by the last one standing!"

D. Va, the Korean gaming superstar, is the next to speak. "Well, may be the one to talk a big game, but the three of us can back it up, no matter who else shows up – Overwatch is going all out on this Rumble, from start to finish!"

And lastly, essentially the poster girl of Overwatch, Tracer finishes up for the team. "We've already picked out our numbers, and from what we've shared between us, I'm going to admit – I'll probably have the toughest road ahead. Even then, I'm not scared – none of us are scared of what comes next, 'cause time means nothing when it comes to the victory road ahead!"

Mean Gene brings up the mic. "Well, time may be just a number for you, but the true factor is stamina and effort in the Royal Rumble – thank you for sticking around for an interview, and good luck at the Rumble!"

The three Overwatch heroes head off stage-right, leaving Mean Gene to himself.

Okerlund looks to the camera with the microphone still handled. "We're just moments away from the Video Game Rumble – 30 superstars, 1 victor! Who will come out on top? We'll leave it up to your imagination; I'm 'Mean' Gene Okerlund, and get ready for some all-out war!"

* * *

 **Now, before we carry on to the next chapter, I have things to say and reasons to 'why' this is suddenly dropped upon you with little warning.**

 **#1:** **My first stories to really blow up big since I first started on FFN were the FanFiction Royal Rumbles; hell, my three most viewed stories are the first three Rumbles (and they're still among the stories that get a bunch of views daily as of now). It's been a while since I've done a Rumble fic, and seeing that there's a bunch of people who have done their own, it's only fitting for me to come back to this as a sort of 'return to form' since I took a real long hiatus between mid-2017 and the beginning of 2018. That and this'll hopefully help me up in getting Act 2 of Tournament of Fate finished up (in case you're wondering when the next Act of ToF would start, it'll be some time after this story is completed).**

 **#2:** **I really want to make up for the sudden end for the unfinished "FanFiction Royal Rumble IV" and "FanFiction Survivor Series" with something I promise to actually finish. If I** ** _don't_ somehow, blame it on my computer shitting the bed. Even then, this won't be as big a Rumble as the past – only 30 competitors, like a standard Royal Rumble nowadays, compared to the past (and the 30-competitors thing is me limiting myself even further past the 'video game characters only' thing of this Rumble).**

 **#3:** **Yes, the Royal Rumble PPV this year, (** ** _probably one of the best overall, in the past decade_ ) is a bit of an inspiration to me, as is some random stuff like Jerma's 'Jerma Rumbles' and newLEGACYinc's Rumble-based stuff (even though that's mostly simulated on their end), and a little bit from stuff like Lucha Underground's Aztec Warfare.**

 **With the following characters set to Rumble...**

 **Pac-Man, Alisa Bosconovitch, Donkey Kong, Mai Shiranui, Reinhardt, D. Va, Tracer**

 **...we're already looking at an interesting cast of characters, and we only know 7 of 'em! In the next chapter, who will start us off? We'll find out... up next!**


	2. Part 1: The Start of War and Monkeys

**Author's Note: I actually had this chapter partially done by the time I uploaded the first chapter - that's probably the best way I can justify the second chapter already being done. I think by the time _this_ chapter's uploaded, I'll have mowed through the first half of chapter 3. Be prepared for that to happen here and there for multi-chapter stories that I currently am working on. **

**Additional Note: '/watch' bits to the side of what the competitors' themes are described as will have to be copy-pasted onto a YouTube URL because FFN is just regularly iffy with links that aren't to other parts of its site.**

* * *

 _I hear your presence among us  
You cannot hide in the darkness  
Can you hear the **rumble**?  
Can you hear the **rumble** that's calling?_

"Cirice" by Ghost plays the event in, with a good set of pyrotechnics and ballyhoo ( _mostly safe smoke-puffs and sparks of fire_ ), not too big to cause trouble within the relatively small but regardless prestigious Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan, New York.

With the size of the venue, the set isn't exactly the size of something from the WWE, but still gives off enough of a vibe of something big. The vibe definitely works, as the 3000-odd fans piled into the Ballroom are on their feet and excited for the upcoming war that will begin before them. Many a sign raised about, rooting on not just people that have been shown just earlier before the event started, but also those they really want to see take part – given the 30 slots in the Rumble, there's an unfortunately high chance some fans will be disappointed their favorite video game character will not take part, but who knows?

A camera pan over to the commentary booth just to the right of the stage ( _the stage's right, not the camera's_ ), where two people, a Caucasian blonde with glasses, and an Af-American with assorted-color dreads, sit by with an apparent third seat still empty. People who regularly watch Let's Plays and/or Fighting Game Community-related videos may easily recognize the two on commentary.

"'Can you hear the Rumble?', indeed!" The blonde begins. "What's up, dudes, Maximilian here; welcome to the Video Game Rumble! With me, straight out of the Woolie Hole, here's the man that salt forgot, Woolie!"

Dread-haired Woolie, donning his Reboot-button beanie, speaks up. "'Shout of Earth' is here to stay, and us 'scrublords' are going to somethin' crazy tonight! This ain't Mahvel tonight, it's the Rumble, bay-bee!"

By this point, Max takes notice to the empty seat to the left of Woolie. "Hey, speaking of crazy, where's the third guy - there's a missing seat over here..."

"Wait up!"

Timing couldn't be so perfect, as Dino speeds out onto the stage and heads to the table, a little tardy to getting there; maybe he was too busy chatting up people backstage, as we've seen earlier.

As soon as he puts on his headset, he puts on his professional voice. "And I'm Dino Winwood, and I spend too much goddamn time goofing off, as you can see! Expect some more honesty tonight, during tonight's Rumble, where we'll see 30 competitors, all looking towards one goal: the bragging rights to being the last one standing, and declare their franchise as the best around!"

"Took the words out of our mouths right there..." Woolie says.

Back to Maximilian. "We've all got favorites here, people rooting all around; not just the several thousand here in the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, but also live on Twitch, where we've got close to more than _double_ the live attendance already, around 5000 and rising, to see what goes down! I gotta say, they all oughta be excited for the unpredictability of the Royal Rumble!"

Woolie then speaks up, "I mean, we can go about sharing who we want to win right now, _or_ we can shelve it right over to the ring announcer and get things started already – we got an hour and a half to burn, might as well get it started!"

Dino shrugs. "Eh, I'm already impatient - let's head over to the ring!"

* * *

Transition to hard-cam, to the ring laced with purple ropes matching the sponsorship of the site streaming it. Jeremy Borash, recently having been picked up by WWE from Impact, stands in the center, as the ring announcer for tonight.

" **Ladies and gentlemen, we are prepared to present to you, the Video Game Rumble match!** " Borash announces, bringing in one of many rounds of cheers to come. " **But first, we must explain the rules to the Royal Rumble match...** "

" **The** **#1 and #2 entrants** **will start off the Rumble... Every** **90 seconds** **, another contestant will enter, based on the number they've drawn, ending with #30... Elimination can** _ **only**_ **occur if they are thrown** **over the top rope** **, and** **both feet** _ **must**_ **touch the floor to count; this includes if they climb over and drop to the floor on their own, counting as an elimination for themselves... This means** **no disqualifications** **whatsoever... The last one that remains after all entrants have entered will be declared the** **winner** **of the Video Game Rumble, be rewarded a special championship belt to defend in the next Rumble match!** "

Near where the commentators are sitting is the title belt in question, heavily resembling the Big Gold Belt of WWE / WCW's past.

Borash finishes up, " **Now, without further ado, let's see who drew #1!** "

After a brief pause of anticipation, the atmosphere receives some energy through some awesome electronic pop [/watch?v=JIE94pn4iJs] signaling the arrival of the first entrant.

" **Introducing first, from an undisclosed location in Eastern Europe... Black Orchid!** "

Donning her modern look, the main point being her dark green bustier and shorts, looks about ready to kick ass, despite the fact that she's drawn the shortest straw, as #1 in the Rumble. She's drawn a fairly moderate reaction from the crowd, as well.

"We're already starting off strong with our first entrant heading into battle!" exclaims Maximilian. "Many will recognize her as one of the most memorable of the 'Killer Instinct' cast, and Woolie, you and I, I think the knowledge between us about her game of origin is about enough to understand just what she brings to the table; don't you think?"

Woolie retorts, "She's got the looks, she's got the skill, she's got the weapons that she's free to use in this type of match, and entering at #1, she might have to put it all to good use to survive from start to finish."

Dino gets in his slightly sleazy-seeming one-two as well. "I mean, I'd hate to let her pass my way, but I _love_ watching her make her way down that ramp..."

Woolie comments, "Control yourself, man."

Dino replies back, "I can, don't worry; just depends on how many of these ladies are taking part – this Rumble is an equal opportunity to all, after all, from men and women, to people both giant and tiny... we might have it all included here tonight!"

By now, has entered the ring, and takes a position at the top right corner of the ring, as her song fades and ends...

...before being replaced with a different track with a similar electronic beat [/watch?v=2Xs_aoGO0OA], meaning the arrival of #2 in this Rumble.

" **Introducing entrant #2 – hailing from the future, from King's Row, England... Tracer!** "

One of the three to represent Overwatch's heroes of the future, as we've seen tonight - Tracer, real name Lena Oxton, steps out onto center stage with a bit more pep in her step compared to entrant #1, and even beating out her starting opponent in reception with a somewhat larger pop from the crowd.

"And on the other hand, we have the time-jumper herself, and I think I can safely say, she's definitely being seen as the one to win, perhaps more so than Orchid!" Dino states.

Max gives his thoughts. "I mean, if you were to tell me to choose which of these two I'd want to see, I'd more than likely _still_ go with Orchid despite Tracer looking already to be more of a favorite to win, _mainly_ based on experience with the game alone."

Woolie agrees. "Same here – got more experience in the KI dojo myself, but if I gotta be honest, it's hard to say; two women from two different parts of time, ready to start off the Rumble – it could go either way if skill decides anything, and within that ring, we're only just about to find out how that works out of the two of them."

With Tracer sliding in and meeting face-to-face with her opponent in B. Orchid from one corner to the other. Heading into the last few seconds before the bell rings to signal the start to an already interesting Video Game Rumble, we definitely have the stage set with a very interesting match-up; agent vs. agent, a (technical) representative of Europe vs. one repping the United Kingdom, entrants #1 and #2 ready to do battle.

Dino assures the fans watching, "Hang on to the edge of your seats – the Rumble is about ready to begin, and you do _not_ want to miss this action!"

 _ **DING-DING-DING!**_

The lights shine over the ring, and the bell rings to begin the action, and the Video Game Rumble is underway!

The two agile women open the contest by circling around the ring, each trying to look for the right moment to ease in and get a hold of the other.

"First things first, the struggle to close in on your opponent," Maximilian details. "Mind your footwork, mind the distance, the reach of not just yourself, your opponent as well..."

A couple seconds later, Tracer moves in, speeding out towards Orchid, before jumping up behind her for a rear waistlock grapple.

"Tracer stepping up, making the first move!" Woolie comments, as Lena grabs Orchid's shoulders and elevates herself up on top in a reverse-rana position. "Hops on Orchid's shoulders and-!"

All of a sudden, just as quickly as she hops on, the Overwatch operative is thrown back down to the canvas, hard enough for even the crowd to feel a tinge of pain from it, as Orchid denies Tracer's efforts.

Max recoils a bit himself. "Ooh, not a good way to start, especially if you intend to last a long while..."

"Orchid's got the size advantage – not by a lot, but perhaps enough to make a difference..." Woolie mentions. "Tracer a fair 5'4'', Orchid towers slightly with 5'9''."

Orchid grapples Tracer from behind, intending to return the favor, as she dead-lifts her up in what looks to be a stalling German suplex. However, Tracer manages to find her way out, grabbing one of Orchid's hands and twisting around for an arm drag to send her across the ring, and close to the ropes.

Tracer makes a run towards her opponent for an early elimination attempt...

...but she eats a big boot to the face from the anti-Ultratech extremist, staggering her...

...and then a knee across the face afterwards by Orchid, successfully knocking Lena down.

Dino comments, "And Orchid wants _none_ of that, gonna kick her nose off or some shit!"

Already looking to be at most 30 seconds before the #3 entrant, as Tracer rolls out and manages to make it to ringside. Obviously, no elimination from this since she went under the bottom rope – hell, being on the outside is probably an advantage since, logically, there's nowhere to be thrown over out at ringside to count as an elimination.

"Tracer already finding herself at a disadvantage after taking some harsh blows to the head already..." Max details the current situation for the British hero. "...how will she adapt to Orchid's strategy of 'hitting hard and fast'?"

Woolie suggests, half-jokingly. "Maybe _blocking_ hard and fast?"

Dino asks in response, "Let's be real here, how far has that gotten anyone?"

Orchid rolls out under the bottom rope herself, heading over to grab by the hair and drag her back in – however, in the midst of that, the countdown to #3 begins.

 **5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

The music [/watch?v=DpS7nCweYZI] that follows the buzzer can be recognized by those who remember what it's about, but to the camera that's focusing on Orchid and Tracer, it shows nothing until a very sudden moment of someone tackling the both of them. At the same time, the cameraman gets knocked over, preventing a clear view of entrant #3 for a moment when the camera goes flying and landing on the floor...

...until something crawls into view of the fallen camera, scaly and green lizard-like ninja drooling and snarling at the camera.

"And I think we can all recognize this man!" Dino proclaims. "Well, hopefully, at least; _look at him_!"

* * *

 **Entrant #3: Reptile [Mortal Kombat]**

* * *

"Reptile slithers into the Video Game Rumble as the third entrant!" Maximilian announces.

"I think _this_ would be Pat's favorite to win!" Woolie mentions.

As the view is taken over to another camera on the other side of the ramp, Reptile rolls into the ring alongside the mixed reaction from the audience; some love to see him in action, others just plain love to hate the inhuman ninja.

As Orchid and Tracer slowly climb back up to their feet, using the ring apron in front of them for help to their elevation, the acid-spitter in the ring seems to be challenging both women to fight against him.

There's a bit of a moment where B. Orchid and Tracer look into the ring and to themselves in deep thought about the situation right now, having to look into a moment of teaming up. Some seconds pass before Orchid gestures towards Lena to slide in and face the Kombatant, while she herself goes around to the other side of the ring.

Tracer quickly finds herself in Reptile's slimy hands, as he looks about ready to feed. However, as he turns around, his attention towards to Orchid, standing on the other side of the ring, on the apron, as a means to provoke the ninja.

Reptile shoves Tracer towards the ropes, and towards Orchid, but the Europe-residing agent pokes herself in between the ropes to halt Tracer's momentum towards the ropes with a shoulder block, at the same time knocking her down.

She then slingshots herself through the ropes, does a front roll towards her inhuman opponent, and jumps up for a knee... only for him to block it and shove her away...

...and then knock her down with a clawed hand running across the face, clotheslining her!

Max says, "Reptile already managing some dominance upon his entry; as this sinister snake of a man battles through two others, can he maintain his momentum heading into the arrival of #4?"

Already up to one knee as she recovers, Orchid grabs Reptile by the leg off him attempting a kick to keep her down against the ropes, and then manages to floor him with a single-leg tackle. Sitting on top in an MMA-style mount, Orchid manages a couple punches down to the reptilian ninja before he blocks one and brings himself up to headbutt her in the face. He clobbers her with a couple more punches in the seated position, as she stays on her knees...

...before a now-recovered Tracer rebounds off the ropes and nails them both with a foot each in a dropkick!

Dino exclaims, "And a dropkick, and _everyone_ 's down!"

The countdown clock is already beginning to wind back down to the buzzer again, as everyone in the ring starts dragging themselves closer to the ropes.

 **7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

The next entrant's music [/watch?v=0Tp0GUayV5Y] starts, as the arrival of a heavyweight fighter with a red gi and quite the eraser-head haircut cracks his knuckles through his MMA-style gloves, walking down the ramp with purpose.

* * *

 **Entrant #4: Paul Phoenix [Tekken]**

* * *

Max announces, "In comes another recognizable fighter; one of Tekken's originals, in fact – Paul Phoenix is the first of their roster to enter!"

Dino exclaims, "He's here to kick a man's ass!"

As soon as he gets into the ring, Paul lays some pain down as he first targets Tracer and hammers her with a single fist on the back of her head, knocking her back down. Next, he elbows Black Orchid on the other side of the ring, staggering her into the bottom right corner.

Reptile manages to avoid getting knocked down like the other two so quickly himself, as he grabs the Tekken veteran by the face; Paul gives no shits as he forces Reptile's clawed hand off his face real quick and goes for a left hook across the mouth.

Unfortunately for him, his glove ends up caught in the otherworldly ninja's sharp teeth for a moment, and after a bit of struggle in getting out, he takes a second route...

...and socks Reptile with his free arm, cracking him on the side of his head with an elbow, knocking him down with one strike. The strike forces Reptile's mouth off Paul's left hand, thankfully leaving only a bit of a mark on the glove.

"Reptile, clobbered with an elbow despite some interesting defense right there!" says Max.

Woolie adds, "Guess he was only delaying the punishment, rather than avoiding it altogether!"

Grabbing the Zaterran ninja by his head, Paul lifts him up, and with little trouble, he tosses him over the top rope for an elimination. However, as he goes over the top, Reptile keeps a hold onto Phoenix's arm, keeping himself from landing feet-first onto the floor.

Dino says, "Reptile ain't letting up just yet!"

All of a sudden, coming in to the aid of the Tekken fighter after finally getting up, Tracer runs in and kicks past Paul and right to Reptile's face, forcing his grip's release, and dropping him to the floor!

"Okay maybe not..." Dino stands corrected, as Reptile finds himself being the first elimination in the Video Game Rumble.

* * *

 **1ST ELIMINATION: Reptile [by Tracer and Paul Phoenix]  
Time: 2:31**

* * *

"Sorry, Pat..." Woolie says, lamenting his friend's potential favorite already getting shit-canned in the first few minutes of the Rumble.

"Our first elimination winds us back to three in the ring, but I have a feeling we'll see another entry in a moment's notice!" Max reminds.

A bit of down-time in the seconds before entrant #5's presence can be felt in this Rumble, as Paul Phoenix is kept away from eliminating Orchid as she forces him back with fists and kicks, while Tracer stands back and lets them handle each other.

 **9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

The next entrant's song [/watch?v=BvvmlBI9tJY] derives away from the electronic and rock and towards a recognizable rap that had the crowd going.

"Well, here's _my_ pick to win!" Dino proclaims, as Nintendo's resident gorilla begins to make his way to the ring.

* * *

 **Entrant #5: Donkey Kong**

* * *

Toting a barrel with his initials painted in the same colors as his tie over his head, lugging it around with ease as if it was light as an empty milk crate, DK walks down to the ramp alongside the audience getting excited. Easily the tallest ( _around between 6'5'' and 7'1''_ ) and the heaviest ( _absolutely 300, close to 400 lbs_ ) of the five to enter so far, it's no surprise he could be considered one of the early favorites – easy to bet on the giants for at most the win, even if the biggest guy doesn't _always_ get that win, and at least a hefty body count in terms of eliminations.

As soon as he enters, he _clobbers_ Paul Phoenix on the head with the barrel, before dropping it down at the bottom left corner.

Max winces, "Oof, some mean barrel offense – something I honestly only half-expected to say tonight..."

Dino quips, "Might've made that haircut a bit shorter with that _bonk_ on the head!"

With Donkey Kong making his presence known already, Tracer and Black Orchid find themselves standing side-by-side against the big gorilla fighter. Could they benefit from a team-up against him, or will this night end bad for them, with early eliminations?

* * *

 **Statistics as of Entrant #5  
**

 **In-ring: Black Orchid, Tracer, Paul Phoenix, Donkey Kong  
Eliminated: Reptile**

 **Longest lasting: Black Orchid / Tracer (tied due to being #1 / #2; 4:30+ upon arrival of #5)  
Shortest lasting: Reptile (2:31)**

 **Most eliminations: 1 (Paul / Tracer)**


	3. Part 2: Animals Ripe For The Hunt

Five entrants and the match is already starting to get _interesting_ , with one elimination already jotted down and the inclusion of a couple of people who aren't quite human ( _one of which were the first elimination_ ), including Donkey Kong, the most recent entrance, and the one so far who could make the biggest difference, especially with three others in Paul Phoenix ( _having just been clobbered with a barrel by DK_ ), Tracer and Black Orchid among the current ranks.

The bare-fisted gorilla beats out the drums of war on his chest, ready for all comers after setting his place in the first 20 seconds of his arrival.

Dino Winwood proclaims, "This is a big man comin' in – oh, pardon me, not even a _man_ , we got a big ol' ape out here to brawl!"

Max notes, "He's got the size advantage over everyone so far – we don't even need to do more than look at him to understand that!"

Despite a disadvantage in one way, Tracer and Orchid certainly could benefit coming together to create an advantage in a whole new way – one of the unwritten strategies to a Royal Rumble match is to rely on strength in numbers against the 'Goliaths' of the battle.

They nod together to settle a temporary truce, facing against Kong as he looms in closer himself...

...but as he steps closer, he gets walloped from the side; Paul Phoenix has managed to get back up, and he's just delivered a massive punch to the gut to actually knock down the big ape, and even send across the ring along the way! The crowd springs up, both vocally and literally, to their feet, as Tekken's resident tough guy just showcased a piece of what he can do at his best.

"Did you see that?!" Woolie is surprised. "Did that just happen?!"

Dino hypes up the toughness of that blow. "He breaks boulders with that damn punch!"

Maximilian proclaims, "When you do that sort of shit to something like _that_ in the ring, you can _guarantee_ the crowd will be on your side!"

Dazed and disoriented from the tumble he took as he rolled towards the ropes, has found himself tied up in those ropes, Andre The Giant-style, while Paul, still a bit knackered from the barrel atop the skull, loses a bit of his balance and drops to a knee. After that punch, despite being in the middle of recovering ( _and hoping he hadn't suffered a real bad concussion_ ), Paul has still rallied the crowd onto his side, after getting DK hung up at the ropes; as he recovers, he even shoves DK's barrel out of the ring ( _somehow, it doesn't even crack from the landing onto the ringside floor_ ), as if to serve the big monkey fighter right for clobbering him with it.

The two female mercenaries on the other half of the ring, Orchid and Tracer, look on in awe as well, left as surprised as the crowd witnessing; Lena's jaw has damn near dropped to the floor, while Orchid's expression is more subdued to slightly widened eyes and a genuinely amused smile.

As everyone in the ring stands around in the down-time between entrants, either to recover or to regroup, the Royal Rumble countdown returns to loom over the participants in the ring, as another character is set to come out soon!

"The game is ever-changing in the Rumble with every big move done and every next entrant," says Maximilian. "Will #6 up next prove another switch-up in strategies for the rest?"

 **7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

Just as the buzzer hits, the action starts to kick back in, as Tracer runs at Paul for some sort of attack, only for him to toss her over his shoulder and send her into the turnbuckles behind himself; winds up in a tree-of-woe position off that.

While Orchid attempts to jump in at Paul, only to get thrown into the same corner, colliding shoulder-first into Tracer's gut and crumpling them both in the bottom left corner of the ring, the lights dim, and a new song [/watch?v=7pBbXooveh0] plays.

A spotlight reveals the next entrant, back turned out towards the ramp, wearing a similar type of karate gi as Paul Phoenix ( _only black instead of red, with sleeves and without the footwear or gloves that Paul has_ ); speaking of Paul, the flat-top fighter can barely be seen in the dark starting to notice the man in the midst of a brief kata on stage.

Woolie is the first to begin realizing the identity of the next entrant, and he feels intrigued. "Oh-ho-ho, boy... I don't think anyone in that ring's prepared for this."

Only when the incoming fighter turns around to reveal a white-bearded red Tengu mask do the fans begin to realize themselves and cheer.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I think things are starting to get real serious in the Rumble," Max hypes up. "To those who don't know about the 'Art of Fighting', let us introduce you, to Mr. Karate!"

* * *

 **Entrant #6: Mr. Karate [Art of Fighting / King of Fighters]**

* * *

The masked fighter, most definitely the eldest of the six competitors having entered so far, makes a focused march down the ramp, under the following spotlight, and climbs into the ring with barely any theatrics needed.

Only when Mr. Karate is in the ring do the lights come back on, and the first opponent the masked man notices is Paul, who's staring right back – no wonder they've taken notice of each other, considering the similar attires, and the other three participants ( _Tracer and Orchid at the bottom left, Donkey Kong still tangled up at the top left_ ) are pretty much audience members themselves to this moment.

Dino surveys the situation as best as he can, as Mr. Phoenix and Mr. Karate begin taking steps around the ring in a standoff. "I think everything's starting to boil down to a sort of 'dream match' scenario between two guys who punch _really_ hard – who _knows_ how this will end!"

After some seconds longer of build-up among the fans getting hype for the crossover battle, Paul makes the first go of it, swinging in with a far-reaching right hook, only for Mr. Karate to evade, causing to end up rebounding off the ropes.

Karate charges up for a mid-section blow as Paul runs at him, but the experienced Tekken fighter avoids it at the last-second, shifting around enough to rather smoothly bring the elder fighter around with a hip toss that Mr. Karate quickly gets up from.

Paul hops and latches onto one of Mr. Karate's arms for a cross-armbar takedown, but he doesn't get any further than the grapple and winds up upside-down, shoulders to the mat, as Karate holds him down and slams an elbow onto his face, forcing the arm-based grapple off.

Max winces, "Oof! Elbow to the mouth!"

"Think we got some legit strikes going," Woolie mentions. "Only way to

Already closing in on 30 going on 20 seconds, as Mr. Karate moves in with an attempted chop, only for Paul to stop his arm mid-strike and shove him off, resulting in a bit of a stalemate as the two martial-arts practitioners.

At this point, it seems the two are going to split off, whether they'd like to or not, as Tracer dives in towards Mr. Karate and gets caught into a grapple; meanwhile, Orchid charges forward at Paul with a knee that she gets most of, but not all of it due to Paul blocking with both gloved hands and attempting to catch her leg.

As the countdown to the seventh entrant begins, Donkey Kong has spent the better part of the past couple minutes caught up in the ropes, his large arms proving in having trouble with the escape. However, from what comes next, that is about to change; the camera seems to barely catch something scattering up behind the large animal fighter.

Woolie takes notice most out of the three commentators at the stage. "Wait—what—is that what I think that was?"

Before there can be a switch over to another camera, that little thing has scampered back off to underneath the ring, beyond the line of sight of the nameless referees at ringside, and from the looks of things, it seems to have helped DK in the aid of struggling him out of the ropes. Really, only the fans on that side of the ballroom could see, and it seems to have been something that resulted in a bit of a mix of laughter and cheers.

Dino justifies his ignorance. "Sorry, I wasn't looking – I was just seeing that we're already closing in on entrant #7..."

Max admits, "Same, unfortunately; who knows, maybe we'll find out real soon..."

 **10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

The sound of a scaling marimba [/watch?v=vy7IGst0o3M] sends some cool nostalgia chills towards a great bunch of the fans in attendance, recognizing the song and the orange marsupial coming out alongside it.

* * *

 **Entrant #7: Crash Bandicoot**

* * *

"So I'm guessing this _isn't_ what you were talking about, Woolie?" Dino assumes.

The 'Super Best Friends' rep shakes his head in response, "No, but it's definitely someone who wouldn't look out of place living under the ring – a classic gaming star, and basically the unofficial mascot of the original PlayStation, Crash is here to bounce into action!"

Fittingly enough, Crash bounces off DK's barrel at ringside to help him jump into the ring with a rope-held front flip and a smooth landing.

As the Tracer / Mr. Karate and Orchid / Paul bouts go into corners of the ring, with one side of both struggling to toss out their opposition, something begins in the middle of the ring between Crash and Donkey Kong, with the latter already seeing the former as a potential threat to his likely massive collection of barrels, what with the marsupial jumping on the one at ringside for an easier entry into the ring.

What the result comes from this is a confrontation between the scrawny bandicoot and the buff monkey, one that's very easily a David vs. Goliath-type match-up as we've ever seen so far in this Rumble alone.

Crash scoots, slides and spins around to as a means to confuse DK on which way he's probably going to go at him. Ultimately, the route decided on is the one least traveled – underneath the big gorilla...

...but it winds up being the direction DK predicts, possibly by sheer luck, as he grabs Crash off the ground and brings him closer to the ropes, right near the bottom left of the ring.

A few seconds of struggling later, Crash manages to shake away from DK's grasp and knock him back a bit with a dropkick as he lands on the top turnbuckle.

Maximilian commentates "It's fast-and-steady against slow-and-strong; how's _this_ gonna go down?"

No time to make a second thought on this, as the bandicoot hops off quick, precisely lands on Kong's shoulders, lets both himself and his larger opponent spin around a little bit, and then whips downward to send him across, clumsily flinging himself towards the top right corner.

Meanwhile, in that exact corner, Paul Phoenix is in the midst of trying to eliminate B. Orchid, having climbed himself up to the second rope while Orchid is partway hanging out of the ring, on the apron. When Donkey Kong tumbles into that corner, he bumps right into Paul, and the red-gi fighter gets _knocked_ right over the top rope!

Dino proclaims, "Whoa, watch out for that big meat, man!"

Fortunately, Paul manages to hang on, _barely_ , with both hands clinging on the second rope. DK sits at the corner barely inches south of where Paul and Orchid are, as Paul successfully regains his footing on the apron, deciding to trade blows with the Europe-residing agent.

Woolie blurted, "Orchid and Phoenix are not letting up on each other!"

"Someone's gotta go down! Someone's bound to fall and lose their spot!" Max proclaims. "As we are about to bring in our next entrant, what other directions will this Rumble go? What directions will this Rumble have to _invent_ in order to go them?!"

Heading into the countdown from 10 to 0 into the next entrant, Crash Bandicoot has spent most of the moment after sending DK away jumping around in his usual excitable manner.

 **8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

Rather than a new song to ring in the next entrant, the DK Rap that the titular Donkey Kong came out to plays again.

Woolie notices something off from the reused music, "Wait a second..."

All of a sudden, a part of the ring apron near where Paul and Orchid are fighting flaps open ( _again_ ), and there we have the reveal of the sneak that helped DK, from a couple minutes back, easily noticed by all ( _rather than only the people on that side_ ) by his Nintendo hat and small red shirt.

* * *

 **Entrant #8: Diddy Kong**

* * *

Donkey's little companion makes his presence officially known, scattering around at ringside like the goofy little monkey he is.

The first of the participants to take notice of Diddy Kong at ringside is, again, the eraser-haired Paul; he can clearly be seen shouting "How many of these things are there in this match?!" Betting nobody is surprised about him being annoyed with the animals in this Rumble, given his track record against bears.

That grudge against these fighting animals seems about ready to grow further, as Donkey Kong runs up from behind and charges into him with a tackle, sending the Iron Fist tournament vet across from the apron, and right into the barricade!

Woolie shouts, "WHOA there he goes!"

It's this exact point of the moment where the commentators notice that the landing takes has him laying by his stomach on the barricade, halfway into the crowd with his feet having not touched the floor _yet_. Emphasis on ' _yet_ '.

"Whoa waitwaitwait, hold on a second – he's still in, he's still in!" Max frantically assures. "His feet never touched the floor!"

"It's all a matter on 'if' they do eventually!" Dino reminds.

For the next moments, as Diddy Kong enters the ring, Paul just seems to hang around there, folded over like a chair on the barricade for the moment, for a few seconds before he starts to keel over further into the side of the audience, where some front-row fans look to be trying to help him out.

In the ring, Crash and Diddy are already targeting each other, as Donkey watches from the side, and Orchid moments ago had just rolled through the ropes and back into the ring, heading over to the top left side to aid Tracer against the formidable Mr. Karate in an elimination struggle that's been going on since before Crash's arrival.

"Look at this, we got the battle of the springy-boys!" Dino oddly quips towards the Diddy Kong / Bandicoot showdown starting up in the center of the ring. "Or... battle of the 'springy animals'? I dunno..."

Woolie responds, "Hey, call it what you will, I call it a little bit of mascot warfare – sure, it may be a PlayStation classic against a Nintendo sidekick, but looks like it could be an even standing!"

Diddy makes the first go, jumping onto the only slightly taller ( _by a few inches at most_ ) Crash's face, and then climbing around to his back to pummel at his head like a drum.

Max proclaims, "And off we go!"

Thinking of a certain monkey-based metaphor, Dino subverts the use towards this bout within the Rumble, "I don't think anybody needs to say it!"

Meanwhile, back to the barricade, Paul seems to be faring a little better than earlier when he started off on the landing, pushing himself back up to a proper position where he's sitting fine, one leg on each side, like riding a horse. _Don't expect any horses to enter the Rumble, by the way_.

On the top left quadrant of the ring, Mr. Karate shoves off both Tracer and Orchid, especially nailing the King's Row agent across the mouth with a palm strike, slowly easing into the center of the ring where Crash is still trying to swing Diddy Kong off his back.

Donkey stomps around the ring for a bit, getting over to the side where the barrel he brought in is sitting at ringside.

He plucks the barrel out and heaves it back into the ring, immediately rushing the bottom end of it into Crash once it's in his grasp... and then with raising start, he drops the barrel down on the bandicoot, the end result pretty much stuffing Crash _into_ the barrel!

"Stick' em in a barrel, call it a home!" Dino quips accordingly, as DK keeps a hold onto the barrel.

Lifting Crash within the somewhat broken barrel, occasionally dropping a banana here and there ( _thus confirming the contents of that barrel_ ) with Diddy Kong cheering on over on the side, DK lifts the marsupial over his head with a gorilla press ( _pun_ _ **not**_ _intended_ ) and, after a moment to walk from one side of the ring to the other, tosses him right over and out!

Maximilian proclaims, "Crash has been tossed out in oddball fashion!"

Dino says, "Eliminated the way he lived; face-first into a shit-ton of fruit."

* * *

 **2ND ELIMINATION: Crash Bandicoot [by Donkey Kong]  
Time: 2:47**

* * *

"He didn't last long, but at least he managed something of an _attempt_ to make an impact in the Video Game Rumble," Woolie mentions, "As we speak, entrant #9 is on the way!"

 **7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

Another theme [/watch?v=jo9pt94ApzY], another entrant; this time, the person stepping through the curtain dons a great deal of medival-esque armor, with some additional gear that looks like it was made from the scales of a red dragon, and a giant sword attached at the back that _may_ likely find use in the ring.

Dino announces, "Look at this dude heading to the ring – I'd say a bit too much protection on for a match like this!"

Max looks to correct Dino, "Oh, I don't think that's a dude; I can tell, I recognize the look..."

Woolie definitely knows something that Dino doesn't. "That look is _something_ , and I bet you this is probably one of Pat's favorites now."

At first, it may seem like just a 'take my word for it' from Maximilian based on video game knowledge, but when the armored fighter removed their head-gear in preparation for the Rumble in the ring, the shoulder-length bluish-black hair and the overall facial build looks to confirm the gender.

Looking up to the titantron on the stage, the projection's camera angle proves easier for Dino to confirm and otherwise feel like he stands (or sits) corrected. "Oh, it's one of those bad-ass 'waifus' I don't know about, isn't it?"

Max replies, "Well, she's one of those types that hunts monster for a living, and if you're looking for a proper name... well, I only know as much as you do, Dino; the best we can call her is a 'Monster Hunter', like the rest of those who she represents in this Rumble!"

* * *

 **Entrant #9: Monster Hunter [(** _ **version from**_ **) Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite]**

* * *

Grabbing her sword and then using it to elevate her to the ring apron in a very unique and interesting fashion, the Hunter enters the ring in the midst of Donkey and Diddy Kong taking up the middle of the ring to showboat for the crowd.

What DK _doesn't_ see coming is the incoming Monster Hunter coming up with a waistlock grapple from behind, and _THROWING_ him onto his neck and shoulders across the ring with a brutal German suplex! The crowd bounces emotionally and almost literally off that showcase of strength!

Dino hoots with surprise, "Whoo-ho-hoo, holy shit, man!"

Max calls, "Absolutely _humbling_ Donkey with that suplex!"

"Now, _that's_ how you make a first impression!" proclaims Woolie. " _Yeah_!"

Intimidated almost instantly by his big friend getting annihilated with that neck-dropping suplex, Diddy Kong scrambles his way over to the ring apron.

On the other hand, moments after laying out Tracer and just seconds before sending Orchid over and back onto the ring apron, Mr. Karate has caught the Hunter throwing Donkey Kong on his head off the corner of his eye ( _through the mask, at least_ ), and from his intrigued body language ( _the only thing to read from due to that Tengu mask_ ), a thinking hand to his chin, it seems he recognizes quite a bit of power within the armored huntress, and she recognizes his presence back, already sensing _him_ as somewhat of an important fighter from the look and stature alone.

"Well, ain't _this_ an interesting match-up?" Dino acknowledges the Hunter and the Tengu-masked fighter's confrontation. "Miss 'Hunter', you might wanna leave that sword be for now against _this_ guy!"

With everyone occupied with something on their mind in the ring – Tracer and Orchid presumably talking strategy, Karate and MonHun staring each other down, Donkey Kong in a daze off the suplex and Diddy hiding around the ring post just to be safe, we head back to Phoenix Watch, as Paul has just found an opportunity to get back into the match, just from looking at the bandicoot-in-a-barrel thrown out some moments ago.

Climbing around on the barricade, in order to properly get on his two feet on top of the railing, it takes him a good couple moments to get the footing just about right so he doesn't take a tumble and face a _long_ -staggered elimination.

Woolie half-watches Paul's situation closely at this point, "Hold on guys, look at this..."

As Mr. Karate challenges the Monster Hunter in the ring with a wide-arm stance, Paul waits for the barrel-jammed Crash to blindly stumble into the right position in between the barricade and the ring apron... and manages to successfully hop onto the top of the barrel, despite _some_ stumbles.

Woolie yelps, "Whoa, look at that!"

Max proclaims, "He may be a bit of a big guy, but he ain't one to step down from this kind of challenge!"

Dino half-asks, "Is _he_ really gonna...?"

The problem with Crash stumbling around in a daze within that banana barrel leaves Paul on a very shaky platform for the next moment...

...but he manages to overcome it, and jump right to the apron! The crowd, having been invested in that spot, go nuts for the guy!

Max cheers first among the crowd. "He made it!"

Dino is surprised. "Him? Of all people to pull a Kofi, it was him?! _Amazing!_ "

At this point, Donkey Kong has shaken off his scrambled grogginess, and upon seeing Phoenix make it to the apron and back into the ring, he twists around and smacks the gruff Iron Fist fighter right in the face, which sends him over and unfortunately right down to the floor for a sudden elimination.

Max's tone falls flat once Paul damn near face plants onto the floor. " _Aaaand_ there he goes..."

Dino is rightfully annoyed by this result. "Fuck! He was just about to become my favorite to win with that!"

* * *

 **3RD ELIMINATION: Paul Phoenix [by Donkey Kong]  
Time: 8:09**

* * *

Woolie gives his short and simple thought on that. "Well... _that_ was something!"

"DK, you had his hopes and you stomped it down the drain like Johnny's turds!" Dino proclaims with an in-joke that leaves his fellow commentators confused. Upon that, he adds, "I'll explain later..."

As Diddy Kong joins his friend back in the ring, hopping on Donkey's shoulders as they take a collective pose among some jeering fans, who really were won over fully by Paul before DK had to ruin it.

Meanwhile, Mr. Karate and the Monster Hunter ( _or 'Monster Huntress', whatever works fine_ ) have just gotten into a collar-and-elbow tie-up, but the grapple is a bit short-lived as Donkey Kong rampages through them ( _still with Diddy on his shoulder_ ), knocking them straight into the same corner as Tracer and Orchid, and on their hand, they are about to bounce back into the action.

With DK in close sight, Black Orchid gets his attention with an elbow upside his left temple. He looks back at her, and is met with a shoulder thrust from Orchid straight to the gut, sending him back a couple of steps. Orchid makes the leap, springboarding off at him...

...only to be caught around the left arm by the big monkey brute.

Tracer immediately jumps in for the aid in the exact same method, springboarding in and hopping right at him, only to meet the same kind of fate, around DK's no-longer-free right arm.

"Uh-oh!" shouts Dino.

Woolie says, "Those ladies oughta think quick before DK tries tossing him out!"

However, with both arms full, DK is not very much protected from what comes next, as the Monster Hunter ramps back in with a massive tackle that floors him ( _and also nearly floors the duo of Orchid and Tracer along with him_ ).

"Massive spear from the Monster Hunter!" Max announces. "Wonder if she's had to do that to a monster herself in her travels..."

Dino quips with an obscure reference on his tongue. "Sad to say, it may be 'Bedtime for Bonzo' for that big ol' chimp! And his little pal, too!"

Unfortunately, Diddy takes ever _more_ of an impact due to being on Donkey's shoulders the whole time, the whiplash slamming him down even harder – almost a horrific impact that knocks his hat off upon landing. It's almost hard to watch it happen the first time, let alone any potential replays of that spot later on.

Dragging Donkey Kong over to the ropes facing towards the ramp, the Monster Hunter gestured to Tracer and Orchid to help her out, and they collectively began to try lifting up to slowly shovel him out of the ring. Mr. Karate joining in on the cooperation seconds later only came naturally, which means that every opponent against DK ( _which boils down to everyone except Diddy Kong_ ) is joining in the effort to try and eliminate him and spare the Rumble of a monster in the way, for now...

Maximilian says, "A joint effort being put into this battle to force Donkey Kong out of the Rumble!"

Woolie adds, "It takes more than push-and-shove to get out the biggest guy in the ring!"

All of a sudden, off a surprisingly quick recovery, Diddy's loyalty to his fellow Kong helps him spring out towards the temporary alliance forming, as he latches onto the Monster Hunter's back – unfortunate for the little chimp that it doesn't prove any bigger than a minor agitiation.

Alongside the image of many bodies forcing against the gorilla before them in hopefully successful efforts to eliminate him from the Video Game Rumble, the countdown returns on the titantron – we will officially be through one-third of the 30-character collective, very shortly!

 **10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

Music plays again [/watch?v=107mmUTAYEc], and among the many in the audience who've heard this theme somewhere before, the arrival of a red-trunks heavyweight who looks like he has muscles on his muscles sparks the next of many big pops from the audience.

Max states, "Ringing in the first third of the Video Game Rumble, probably the most Rumble-ready man thus far!"

Woolie shouts out intensely, "The _Red Cyclone_... has arrived!"

* * *

 **Entrant #10: Zangief [Street Fighter]**

* * *

The Russian wrestler definitely has his great deal of fans, a majority of the Hammerstein Ballroom attendance in support ( _with the rest just sort of there, likely getting slightly invested at best_ ), as he makes his way down the ramp.

At the end of the aisle, he is met with the cluster standing in his way, with almost everyone else trying to toss out the _other_ big guy in the Rumble thus far in Donkey Kong.

Climbing up to the apron in front of DK, he grabs onto the gorilla's head with both hands, and heaves forwards, sending EVERYONE backwards a bit, especially Diddy Kong in the back, having been clinging onto the Monster Hunter's back the whole time.

Dino shouts, "WHOA!"

Woolie questions, "Why's he shoving him _back_ into the ring?"

Maximilian replies, "Maybe he wants Donkey Kong all to himself – titans wanting to face one another, maybe?"

Max's theory seems to be about to be proven right, as with everyone else on the side, Zangief seems to go right for Donkey Kong, spinning the gorilla around with a single forearm smash, before grappling from behind.

Max shouts, "Uh oh! UH OH!"

Donkey Kong is the victim to _another_ German suplex, this time from Zangief...

" _FINAL!_ "

Then, keeping a hold of DK after the suplex, Zangief lifts him up and then slams him back-first over his knee...!

" _ATOMIC!_ "

Reeling DK back over and then popping him up a few feet into a powerbomb position; with a bit of a jump while leaning DK by his head closer to ground-level, the Red Cyclone positions correctly...

…and lands with a devastating _spinning piledriver_!

" _ **BUSTER!**_ "

The combination is complete, and Donkey Kong is near incapacitated off it. The crowd is buzzing, especially after interacting by shouting alongside the Russian wrestler.

Woolie praises happily, "Man, grapplers rule!"

Before Zangief can pick up Donkey Kong, most likely for an elimination, he's very briefly interrupted by the intervening of Diddy Kong, who jumps at the Russian, and ends up catching nothing but a tough hand grabbing him by the shirt.

With the care of carrying a simple small garbage bag, Zangief hovers Diddy over the ropes and drops him on the outside, marking the wrestler's first elimination of the night!

Dino wonders, "There was no helping that poor thing, was there?"

Max responds, "Not with Donkey out cold over there, nope..."

* * *

 **4TH ELIMINATION: Diddy Kong [by Zangief]  
Time: 3:40**

* * *

Alright, back to business.

Zangief grabs the remaining Kong, one hand on the back and the other around the back of his tie, and has him joining his companion on the outside with an elimination that looked _almost_ as easy as the first.

Max states, "And _there's_ the elimination he was looking for!"

Woolie notes, "Already tied for most eliminations with 2 – a guarantee to increase over the course of tonight!"

* * *

 **5TH ELIMINATION: Donkey Kong [by Zangief]  
Time: 8:10**

* * *

Turning around to meet the four others in the ring, being Tracer, Orchid, the Monster Hunter and Mr. Karate, with all four of them staring right back at him, Zangief likes the competition he has to face already.

As he stands in the center of the ring, slowly finding himself in the middle of a circle forming with the other participants, Zangief pounds his chest and gets into his fighting stance, shouting...

"Bring it on, I'll take on ALL comers!"

* * *

 **Statistics**

 **In-ring: Black Orchid, Tracer, Mr. Karate, Monster Hunter, Zangief  
Eliminated: Reptile, Crash Bandicoot, Paul Phoenix, Diddy Kong, Donkey Kong**

 **Longest lasting: Black Orchid / Tracer (tied due to being #1 / #2)  
Shortest lasting: Reptile (2:31)**

 **Most eliminations: 2 (Zangief / Donkey Kong)**


	4. Part 3: Welcome The Odd Ones

The first to step in and attempt to fall the Russian bruiser was the Monster Hunter, who attempts to employ the same move she floored Donkey Kong earlier, upon her arrival, but the rear waistlock is halted immediately, as Zangief throws her back over his shoulder.

Next was Tracer, who hops in immediately after for a hurricanrana of sorts, and is stopped before even managing the drop-down. Zangief simply rotates her around and uses her as a shield for Orchid incoming, who jumps for a high kick and has the Overwatch operative thrown into her arms as they are both sent crashing down!

"Ooof!" Woolie winces "Zangief is wiping the floor with these guys! Making them look like total scrubs, almost!"

"Well, he's the freshest out into this Rumble thus far," Max responds. "It's quite the advantage after all, and combine that with his strength compared to the rest... well, you just get someone rampaging over everyone until the next big threat comes around!"

"I mean, I would _not_ want to mess with this guy – ohh, but _he_ might..." Dino mentions, fearing his own safety, but not so much Mr. Karate's once he sees the Tengu-masked fighter step up fearlessly against the Red Cyclone.

From one interesting Capcom vs. SNK encounter to another over the course of the past few minutes, the Video Game Rumble looks about set to welcome its eleventh entrant in just a moment.

As Zangief and Mr. Karate slowly agree to a test of strength in the middle of the ring, the countdown clock soon after re-emerges on the titantron...

 **10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

Cue the next song [/watch?v=WQ36uiRyPMc] to ring in entrant #11, who emerges as an intriguing-looking samurai under light armor, a skeleton-esque mask ( _at least, we can_ _ **assume**_ _it's probably a mask, you never know..._ ) and a green glowing samurai sword.

Max announces, "Well, we just had one Tekken fighter get eliminated moments ago, but in comes another, and in a way, a much more unusual competitor _also_ from the Iron Fist tourneys – Yoshimitsu, ladies and gentlemen!"

" _Best_ design he's ever had – and ever will have," Woolie states his personal opinion.

* * *

 **Entrant #11: Yoshimitsu [Tekken]**

* * *

Sliding in under the ropes, Yoshimitsu assumes a fighting stance, beckoning to the challengers based only by the handling of his sword.

While in the middle of her recovery period after a failed attempt at battling Zangief, the Monster Hunter realizes she is no longer alone in the ring as a weapon user, and reaches out to ringside and brings in her heavy great-sword.

Meanwhile, Tracer and B. Orchid have sort of partly rolled out of the ring to recover, as Mr. Karate escapes a backbreaker attempt from Zangief, and Yoshimitsu / MonHun have just now locked on to each other, both grasping their respective weapons.

Dino notices first, "Hey, check out what's going on in the ring...!"

Woolie gets hype, "Ohhh, we gonna go Soul Calibur on this bitch!"

Despite the clear size difference between swords, Yoshimitsu manages to keep an even battle against his human opponent.

It's at this point that a generic-looking sign that says "THIS IS WRESTLING" comes up on hard-cam from someone a few rows away from the front – it's hard to say whether it's being ironically brought up in the midst of this impromptu sword fight or if it's a nod towards the Zangief / Mr. Karate bout simultaneously occurring alongside it.

Dino points out the sign "Probably gonna need to put a question mark on that sign, kid..."

"Well, this is _something_ , alright!" Maximilian notes.

Soon enough, Zangief and Karate finally take notice to what's going on around them, joining Tracer and Orchid in looking on at the clash of swords in the center.

MonHun shoves off Yoshimitsu from one more grinding clash before they stop and stare each other down. From one corner to the other across the ring, Yoshimitsu animatedly taunts the Monster Hunter, in his regularly-eccentric manner, but the huntress with the giant boney broadsword has none of it.

Behind the alien samurai, Tracer jumps in and suddenly knocks Yoshimitsu off his feet with a chop-block dropkick; he springs back up, not taking kindly to the sneak attack as he points his saber at Tracer. All it does is pretty much provoke Lena and B. Orchid out of the bottom left corner as they dare 'Mitsu to challenge the odds.

Yoshimitsu retaliates by bringing the sword up with the blade pointed right at Orchid, complete with a weird-sounding, straight alien battle cry and attempting to stab down at her, only for her to evade, and the sword to dive and bury the tip a couple inches into the top turnbuckle.

Woolie is a bit startled by "Whoawhoawhoa, calm down, Yosh'!"

Max says, a bit panicked, "This is a Royal Rumble match, not a battle to the death! You can't just go stabbing a bitch!"

Woolie notes, "I don't think he has a complete grasp on how this match goes – that's saying a lot considering a lot of these characters aren't really wrestlers!"

As the commentators went on in this moment, and as Mr. Karate and Zangief decide to team up against the Monster Hunter without a proper name, Orchid went up behind Yoshimitsu with a barrel of kicks, only for him to kick back a few times himself.

'Mitsu climbs up the turnbuckles at the bottom left, keeping the agents behind him at bay as he jumps off... and then gets one over his opponents in Tracer and Orchid with a crossbody that splashes over _both_ of them!

Dino corrects his fellow commentators from seconds earlier, "Well, he knows how to maneuver well around the ring, you gotta admit that!"

Back to his feet, and after pulling his sword out of the turnbuckle it was just stabbed into – _ain't no Excalibur out of the stone, can say for certain_ – and strikes one of his notable victory poses to sound off this 90-second period heading into the next entrant.

Max proclaims, "Well, entrant #12 will be here in just a second; you bet this could potentially be a game-changer!"

 **9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

This song [/watch?v=IgNGfoCllGY] wouldn't sound out of place at a jammin' dance party – and even with it's cool, happy vibe, it's safe to say it's nowhere as upbeat as the loudly pink hair of the next participant coming in, excitably springing into the center focus of the stage with a "Tweedle-deedly-dee!"

* * *

 **Entrant #12: Mignon Beart [King of Fighters: Maximum Impact]**

* * *

Dino asks, a bit of a ribbing joke on the most recent entrant, upon one look at her. "Tell me, does anyone else taste a bit of anime on their tongue all of a sudden?"

Max retorts, "Oh, you'd _wish_ she was from an anime – this _is_ a 'Video Game Rumble', and unfortunately for some, Mignon Beart qualifies!"

Woolie additionally notes, "And you wouldn't know it, but she's in the same pile as Mr. Karate in being a King of Fighters participant! And of all people to represent the 'Maximum Impact' characters. Fun fact: she practices in the 'white magic'."

Dino laments, "Man, I really need to do my research, do I?"

Woolie responds, "All you need to know is Falcoon was a man with needs. Probably still is."

From the beginning of her entrance, Mignon spends a good 15 seconds slapping hands with the fans at the front row – at least, those few who were willing to not leave her hanging. She didn't exactly get the biggest cheers, or even jeers, she's a bit of an unknown to a bunch of people who are here live at Hammerstein.

Upon entering the ring, she takes on a heroic pose, a la Hurricane Helms, and points straight at the first person in her sights, that being the equally odd Yoshimitsu.

The alien samurai itches the back of his head with his sword ( _please don't question it_ ) when Mignon accuses him of being a 'villainous demon', snapping back with words within his own language, rather undecipherable by human ears, and confusing the

Almost everyone else ( _sans the Monster Hunter and Mr. Karate still trying to heave-ho each other over the top rope_ ) has stopped and started staring at the confrontation in the middle of the ring, Zangief the _most_ intrigued by the battle of the oddballs brewing.

Dino gives his simply-put comment to what's going on. "Hey, you guys wanna clown out against each other, you might wanna do it at a better time..."

Max notes on Miss Beart's look, completely deadpan towards her, "She looks like someone who tried too hard setting a balance between 'fancy' and 'cute'."

Eventually, Mignon looks to be getting impatient with her newfound opponent, stomping her foot down with enough power to lightly quake the whole ring mat. She looks to brawl with Yoshimitsu, taking a stance akin to a kitty-cat who's taken up Chinese boxing.

However, her attempts to duel are halted by the approaching Zangief, who calmly walks over and has her lower her arms, getting into a bit of a discussion that goes along the lines of him calmly questioning her fighting ability. She clearly doesn't like being 'insulted', surprisingly not intimidated by the Red Cyclone's _much_ heavier stature, but he doesn't seem to need to raise his voice at her as he simply tries to reason with her...

...before he suddenly scoops her up in his arms like a wedding bride but not in a lovingly sort of way, more of a 'take out the trash' sort of way. She flails and kicks at him, but to no effect as despite those strikes looking pretty fierce, Zangief gives _none_ towards them...

...before tossing her over the top rope, an easy elimination resulting from her getting dropped flat on her ass at ringside.

Dino snarks happily at her elimination, chuckling to himself. "Well, so much for _that_ ; better luck next time, sweetheart!"

* * *

 **6TH ELIMINATION: Mignon Beart [by Zangief]  
Time: 0:50**

* * *

Max notes, "Shortest run in the Video Game Rumble so far, knocking Reptile right out of the running – I'd be confident knowing that if I were him."

Landing at ringside surely hasn't done well to 's rear considering _how_ she landed, as she rolls around a bit on the floor rubbing at her butt in pain.

Woolie recalls something Max said right before #12 showed up. "Hey Max, you remember when you said this was probably a game-changer?"

"Yeah, have me eat my words – thanks for that," Maximilian sarcastically retorts.

As Zangief dusts off his hands and gets back to Mr. Karate and MonHun at the top right corner, Mignon finally sits up at the bottom of the ramp, resting her knees in front of her self as she starts frustratingly bonking herself on the head for not preparing herself enough for the Rumble.

How fitting that the countdown looms over Mignon's head – regardless of the entrant, she's probably gonna get further clobbered, more than she deserves despite her efforts.

 **10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

Somehow, the song of the next entrant [/watch?v=JVY8jH8Lm2I] manages to be even more of a jammer than Mignon's song. However, a definite sound-off of boos coming from more than a handful of audience members ring through as the next entrant reveals herself, in her cat-ear headphones and ready to dance the night away.

* * *

 **Entrant #13: Lucky Chloe [Tekken]**

* * *

Dino groans, "Well, just when we were starting to get rid of the oddjobs in this place..."

Max immediately goes into assurance towards a friend of his who's most likely watching. "Kenny, if you're watching, I can assure you she'll probably be eliminated just as quickly, if not _quicker_. Do _not_ let that grudge get to your head!"

Woolie is surprisingly amused, "Is it bad I _really_ wanna see how this goes?"

As she trots on down the ramp, Lucky Chloe briefly power-slides Naomi-style, sliding down a fair bit before getting back up continuing her dancing strut...

...only to suddenly get tripped up on something, and fall face-first _right_ into the ring apron! The boos evaporate into groans and then into cheers upon her sudden flop.

Dino laughs at her misfortune. "Well, nice job eating shit there, dipshit!"

Max attempts to make into words what just happen, "Okay, it's hard to see what happened, but I think she may gotten tripped by... wait... _Mignon_?"

Everybody in the ring stops for a moment to look over at what just happened, as the camera gets a good view of a visibly upset looming over Lucky Chloe's body after causing her... well, 'unlucky' prat fall. The magic-practiced girl must be feeling mighty disrespected by the dancer's presence, given that she soon enough climbs over on top of and starts going to town on her with some reckless slaps and punches.

Surprised by what he's seeing, Max tries to call for some assistance from the referees or whomever is willing to break this up. "Okay, uhh, I think we may need someone here at ringside

Woolie states,"You know it's bad when even _she_ finds offense in that girl!"

Mignon yanks the headphones ( _which were already halfway off Chloe's head due to smashing herself on the apron_ ) off her victim, steps back a bit while looking at it, and as the Japanese dance slowly climbs back up, still overpowered by her grogginess...

…Mignon _smashes_ her in the face with the headphones, knocking her back down!

Dino is amazed at the aggression, "Holy crap! Well, she's won me over already! Now if only she can un-eliminate herself and use that to her advantage..."

"Now this is _RUTHLESS AGGRESSION!_ " Woolie proclaims, doing his best (but still hilarious) Vince McMahon impression.

It's at this point that the referees and some security make it to ringside to force Mignon to hold off on further damage. She doesn't exactly fight back against it, instead marching off in a huff. The assistance at ringside departs soon after, leaving Lucky Chloe be on the ground.

Woolie says, "Man, for entering at lucky #13, even with a name like that, this has _not_ been a good night for her."

Asking the big questions, Max speaks up, "She hasn't even made it to the ring - is she technically still in?"

Dino assumes, "I think we might have another Scotty 2 Hotty moment over here. At best, it'll lead to another Axelmania angle if we get back next year."

Back to usual business, with Tracer and Orchid against Yoshimitsu, alongside Mr. Karate, Zangief and the Monster Hunter going against each other in the ring.

Already, it feels like we are creeping close to entrant #14, 20 seconds on the countdown clock heading in.

Dino realizes this... "I just noticed we're right about to see #14 – me and newLEGACYinc, we call that the unlucky number since most people who enter have _bad_ things happen to them eventually..."

Max looks to debunk the number's bad-luck carryover. "I _don't_ think that's how it'll work in _this_ Rumble..."

 **10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

The next song up [/watch?v=Utt5XIHwbqA] rings in the supposed 'unlucky' entrant – a casually-dressed man with a camera corded around his neck, and a shopping cart full of odd makeshift weaponry.

The first thing Dino notices is the cart of plunder. "Whoa shit, he's come prepared!"

Max announces the next entrant to the ring, "Ladies and gents, let us introduce to you, _Dead Rising_ 's own Frank West; you oughta know, he's covered wars... and I think we all have a feeling he's gonna be covering another one tonight!"

* * *

 **Entrant #14: Frank West [Dead Rising]**

* * *

Dino pauses for a bit before speaking up again, as Frank parks his shopping cart at ringside. "...Is it bad I _just now_ noticed the zombie in that cart?"

Well, he isn't lying – a decomposing corpse of a man seems to have been stuffed into the cart, and it's somewhat hard to notice, but that corpse is _still twitching_. Some fear it'll try to get involved.

Max notes back to Dino, "Well, Frank's survived through a lot of zombies – I'm surprised that _you're_ surprised about that."

Dino tries to justify, "It's been a while since I've even heard about Dead Rising – plus, there's a legit zombie at ringside; it's probably only a matter of time before that thing tries to get out of there."

Frank doesn't look to be in a hurry, as he circles around his cart for a brief minute, looking in at the six in the ring, before rummaging into the cart ( _while making sure not to disturb the zombie parked on top_ ), and after a moment, coming up with... what seems to be a helmet modeled after a Servbot ( _from the Mega Man series, to the confused_ ).

In the ring, Zangief has just managed to force Mr. Karate over the top rope and onto the apron, and is about to try the same on the Monster Hunter, after disarming her of her sword...

...only for his sight to suddenly be obstructed by the Servbot helmet that plops onto his head. As the Russian grappler starts rotating around to try and sense the hooligan trying to mess with him, Frank West chuckles to himself ( _and so does the crowd_ ) and adds the insult-to-injury cherry on top by getting his camera ready and taking a humoring little snapshot.

Max quips, "Well, that's one for the scrap-book!"

Spending too much time taking the Servbot head off his own to regain his sight, Zangief doesn't see the Monster Hunter hopping up on his back in an attempted sleeper hold.

Frank steps back and reaches through the ropes to the shopping cart at ringside, bringing in another weapon for the using – this time, a rusty steel pipe, which he immediately swings into the gut of the occupied Zangief. Orchid zips past Frank as she dashes forward with a knee right to the side of Zangief's head – another strike to the big man in the ring to try and stagger him further.

Dino states, "The Red Cyclone's experiencing some turbulence!"

Finally, Zangief manages to knock the Monster Hunter off his back by running backwards into the top left corner and slamming her into the turnbuckles. At the same time, Mr. Karate has gotten up on the apron, and with a running palm strike, smashes Zangief across the mouth to stagger him.

However, not paying attention to _everything_ around him means a price to pay for the Tengu-mask warrior, as Black Orchid charges in with a superkick to the face, which manages to turn the Tengu mask almost 90 degrees sideway and come close to unmasking the legendary Mr. Karate. As if that wasn't enough of a knock that endangers his spot in the Rumble, Zangief makes his retaliation clear, with a clothesline that knocks Mr. Karate for a loop, into a backflip, and out to the outside, sparking a reaction from the crowd.

Dino gasps, "Whoa! He's out!"

Maximilian announces, "Mark off elimination #4 for the Red Cyclone!"

* * *

 **7TH ELIMINATION: Mr. Karate [by Zangief]  
Time: 12:59**

* * *

"Came close to 13 minutes, from what I'm hearing, from entry to elimination," Woolie notes. "That leaves Black Orchid and Tracer as the workhorse candidates, the ones to have lasted the longest overall."

"A thick gap between entries, from the first and second, Orchid and Tracer respectively, to #9, the Monster Hunter," Max adds. "Ain't that interesting?"

Zangief is now going against the #1 / #2 workhorses right now, as he grapples up with Orchid, while Tracer attempts to get a handle of him as well; meanwhile, Frank West has entered a showdown with Yoshimitsu, who has just noticed Frank's pipe and offered up a proper duel between a sword and a pipe. _May I repeat that again? What a Rumble..._

Some may not realize the Video Game Rumble is reaching its halfway point ( _probably because they lost count of the entrant numbers somehow_ ), as the fifteenth entrant is on the way!

 **10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

...Did it just start snowing?

No, that actually seems to be artificial snow of some sorts, as the lights go blue and a new song [/watch?v=uKAtUeWCfrE] chills over the speakers...

 _Whoa... Chinese ninja warrior...  
With your heart so cold...  
 **Sub-zero**_ _..._

* * *

 **Entrant #15: Sub-Zero [Mortal Kombat]**

* * *

Dino does his best WWE-commentator impression, "Can it be? … It is!"

The ice-powered Lin Kuei warrior stands on the stage, staring right down to the ring, before starting his walk down the aisle among a great reception, perhaps one of the biggest next to Zangief's arrival earlier and Lucky Chloe getting her ass kicked.

"Business is only picking up from here!" Max proclaims as Sub-Zero steps ever so closer to the ring, heading into the second half of the Video Game Rumble!

* * *

 **Statistics**

 **Current participants: Black Orchid, Tracer, Monster Hunter, Zangief, Yoshimitsu, Lucky Chloe (?), Frank West, Sub-Zero  
Eliminated: Reptile, Crash Bandicoot, Paul Phoenix, Diddy Kong, Donkey Kong, Mignon Beart, Mr. Karate**

 **Longest lasting: Black Orchid / Tracer (tied since start)  
Shortest lasting: Mignon Beart (0:50)**

 **Most eliminations: 4 (Zangief)**


	5. Part 4: The Waifu Hour

Upon his entry into the ring, Sub-Zero's first target is Frank West, who gets sent down with a couple clubbing blows to the back from the ice ninja, before he gets tossed over the top rope; Frank manages to hold on and stay on the apron, surviving for another time. The next target in the Lin Kuei ninja's sights is Yoshimitsu, who takes offense in Sub-Zero's interference in the challenge that was apparently supposed to be between Frank and 'Mitsu.

"Sub-Zero already punching guys' shits in!" Dino proclaims rather vulgarly.

Mr. Karate is only now starting to get up, spending a bit of time to re-adjust his mask.

Sub-Zero and Yoshimitsu come to blows in the middle of the ring as Zangief continues to do battle with Tracer and B. Orchid. The Monster Hunter, without a proper opponent, seems to just stand prepared, cautious of anybody who possibly could be coming at her direction, and Frank West continues to stay on the apron, next to his cart of tricks.

Grappling around Yoshimitsu, Sub-Zero lifts him up and slams him down over his knee with a backbreaker to take over momentum against his current opponent.

"I dunno how much durable an alien body would be compared to a regular human body," says Max. "I don't really have experience in that sort of thing..."

Woolie assumes, "Nobody here does, I think... nobody here at commentary especially."

Dino speaks up, "I may know a little... but it's from the internet, so I can't validate anything."

At the bottom left turnbuckles, Zangief batters down on Orchid with open-hand chops that echo here and there, after having sent Tracer back over the top rope and onto the apron.

Just a couple feet away, Frank West is still figuring out some sort of game plan involving the junk from his shopping cart. Soon enough, he just starts to roll in random weapons, like a small, near-empty garbage bin, a scrawny golf club, and, of course, a sleek wooden baseball bat that he finally heads back into action with.

Woolie proclaims, "And so the hardcore plunder begins to pile up!"

The Monster Hunter, now heading back into action outside of her choice, finds herself having to block all incoming face shots towards the face from Frank's baseball bat, as she fights back with kicks whilst blocking.

Sub-Zero catches Yoshimitsu's sword by the glowing green blade when the odd alien warrior tries swinging it at the Lin Kuei ninja's face. 'Mitsu takes the handle of his own blade in between the eyes when Sub-Zero lunges it back into his face and forces him to drop it.

Back to Orchid and Zangief heading out from that bottom left corner, with Orchid putting the legs to work with low kicks across Zangief's much larger legs to try and finally trip up the heavyweight and force a disadvantage upon him.

 **10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

The next song hits [/watch?v=v2pb-WCEI20] and the next entrant heads out; the white karate-gi top, red headband and purple leggings makes this next girl heading in fairly easy to recognize amid the SNK fanbase.

* * *

 **Entrant #16: Yuri Sakazaki [Art of Fighting / King of Fighters]**

* * *

Max speaks extensively on the newest entrant, "I don't think this next entrant needs much of an introduction for a good bunch of you watching – the third participant tonight to come straight out of SNK's gallery of characters, Yuri Sakazaki brings the spunk, and the youth, to pull off some choice maneuvers in the battlefield!"

As the young Kyokugen student heads down the ramp, she just briefly notices Mr. Karate walking past her, up the ramp; she definitely knows something about the man in the Tengu mask that the others in the ring don't, given how intrigued she looked briefly, but it looks like she's going to choose to carry on, as she shrugs it off and maneuvers around the parked shopping cart at the end of the ramp, before sliding into the ring.

It doesn't take any longer than a couple of seconds for Yuri to quite literally jump into action; as Sub-Zero and Yoshimitsu brawl at the bottom right corner ( _and across to the top right, the Monster Hunter is getting at Frank West similarly, with simple boxing jabs_ ), leaps at the Lin Kuei warrior from behind with a jumping elbow to the back to back him off.

She rebounds off the ropes, past Zangief and Orchid, while just nearly budging Tracer on the apron, and runs back into Yoshimitsu's corner; she jumps while spinning around, smashing 'Mitsu right in the face with her butt in typical Yuri fashion.

Max notes, "Yuri knows her way around ass-based offense – probably one of many techniques she's best known for, for better or worse."

Dino mentions, "I mean, that is _definitely_ a sort of fetish for some people, I can say for certain; imagine what Billy Gunn must think of her..."

Woolie speaks over to Winwood, "Dino, think it's best to keep your fetish talk for another time – we got a Rumble to follow here, man..."

A new development occurs in the ring, as Tracer decides to shift priorities, running past Zangief and choosing to dropkick the Monster Hunter from behind, causing a collusion between the nameless huntress and Frank West at the top right corner. MonHun scrunches up on the ring mat beneath her, while Frank stays groggy and on his feet for a moment longer, delaying his flop until he tumbles over the Monster Hunter's body and face-plants a la The Nature Boy, Ric Flair.

"Tracer just spent a crap-ton amount of time with Orchid against Zangief, now she's shifting gears!" Max mentions.

As Yuri nails Yoshimitsu with a hurricanrana in the center of the ring, Tracer climbs the top rope, a few feet away from the Monster Hunter, before splashing onto her with a moonsault!

Dino cheers, "Look at these ladies go!"

Yuri bounces off the ropes again and jumps onto Sub-Zero this time in a similar manner to how she hopped on Yoshimitsu just seconds ago, but the ice ninja keeps a hold onto her, trying to force Yuri over the top rope and bring her to an early elimination ( _one that would probably be some seconds shorter than Mignon Beart's 50-second stint at this point_ ).

As Sub-Zero winds up flopping over the top himself to the apron, Yuri rolls back into the ring first, as outside of her line of sight, Yoshimitsu has reunited with his green saber, and lunges in for a stabbing blow. She avoids in time and grabs 'Mitsu's sword-wielding hand, quickly going for a backflip to hop over Yoshimitsu's head...

...and ultimately forcing the alien sword-fighter's blade right through his own right side, from the shoulder, and out the side of his stomach! The crowd reacts with surprise, some with slight disgust.

Max reacts accordingly, "Holy hell! Thrust with his own blade!"

Woolie adds, "Oh, that's gonna be a problem!"

Dino questions, a bit clueless, "How is that not fatal?"

Max explains in response, "Well, it's Yoshimitsu – getting impaled by his own sword is simply a flesh wound to him."

It's at this point that Zangief sees it, backs off of Black Orchid and begins to head towards Yoshimitsu, in order to take advantage of 'Mitsu's unfortunate situation.

The Red Cyclone makes sure of his nickname-sake by spiraling around with a backhand across Yoshimitsu – at the same time, Yuri successfully ducks the other hand of Zangief spinning around towards her.

The young karate girl and the Russian bruiser take notice of each other for a moment afterwards, before they ultimately decide to use their efforts towards someone's elimination.

Zangief picks up the still self-impaled Yoshimitsu, and brings him up onto the top rope while he's still dazed, and Yuri runs against the ropes on the back-end as hard-cam shows, just slightly grazing past Tracer...

...culminating in a leaping dropkick that catches Yoshimitsu on both feet to the jaw, forcing his tumble right out into ringside!

Max proclaims, "And there goes Yoshimitsu!"

Woolie says, "No more 'namu-namu' for us..."

* * *

 **8TH ELIMINATION: Yoshimitsu [by Zangief and Yuri Sakazaki]  
Time: 7:14**

* * *

Maximilian notes, "If you count this show of teamwork, as absurd as it looks, that's FIVE eliminations for Zangief!"

Dino mentions, "Nice to see some makeshift teams come together to eliminate the competition!"

With the addition of MonHun and Frank West floored, and Tracer heading back to Orchid with both pairs of eyes targeting towards Sub-Zero, Zangief starts pre-maturely celebrating for the time being, flexes for the cheering crowd, and Yuri imitates the flexing motions despite having pretty much nothing in the muscle department to goofy but understandably nice results. A couple referees at ringside seem to be tending to Yoshimitsu on the ground, mainly on that sword embedded through his body ( _drawing no blood, surprisingly enough_ ), and the countdown looks to be winding down to #17 in the background.

 **10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

Alongside the next song playing [/watch?v=yx0g5_oKaOg], a well-built woman in a very revealing cyan-blue costume runs out and makes a beeline down the ramp, and the crowd gives her a very hefty positive reaction.

Max announces, "Well, speaking of teams, here comes Zangief's partner!"

Woolie proclaims, "Just when this Rumble needed some extra 'thiccness' in the ring, in comes Rainbow Mika, ready to toss some fools and look awesome doing it!"

* * *

 **Entrant #17: Rainbow Mika [Street Fighter]**

* * *

Upon her arrival to the ring, Mika's first action is to dropkick Yuri from behind and send her over the top rope – something that catches her pal Zangief a bit by surprise, considering he was still flexing it up Hogan-style for the fans up to this point.

Dino utters, "Step aside, Yuri, there's a bigger 'butt-bae' in town!"

Max raises an eyebrow, " _'Butt-bae'_?"

Dino excuses himself, "Look, I'm trying..."

Mika takes a stance towards Zangief rather quickly, making it known she wants a bit of a 1v1 with the Red Cyclone. It's safe to say things got a slight awkward in his mind considering he partnered up with someone else right before Mika's arrival.

Speaking of that partner, Yuri has avoided elimination by holding on tight and flipping herself back over the top and into the ring, aka 'skinning the cat', and comes charging in at Mika, who is quick to act and go behind in a full-nelson hold, slamming the Kyokugen karate student right on her head with a snapping Dragon suplex!

Woolie squeals, "OOH! That's a smooth suplex if I've ever seen one!"

"Mika and Yuri are _not_ taking kindly to each other, gotta say!" Max states a fairly obvious just for the sake of filling up the dead air at commentary.

The Monster Hunter is just freshly getting up, and Frank West has rolled back over towards his cart for more plunder to rummage through, while Tracer and Orchid find themselves being taken down one-by-one with clotheslines from Sub-Zero.

Blindly charging in, MonHun finds herself caught in Zangief's arms as he grapples her by the legs and sends her splatting back-first onto the mat, holding a leg up under each armpit. The fans at ringside are starting to recognize pretty quickly what the Red Cyclone is about to do, and the cheers slowly begin to ramp up towards the anticipation.

Dino realizes this just as quickly, "Uh-oh! We might be seeing a cyclone goin' around in the ring!"

It's time to see someone going swinging! With as much grace as other users of the 'Giant Swing' such as WWE's Cesaro do it, Zangief lifts and spirals around to swing the Monster Hunter 'round and 'round, alongside the interaction from the crowd, counting in unison each full 360-revolution he does.

 _1!... 2!... 3!... 4!... 5!..._

The swinging, after a little while, eventually stops at around 15 rotations before Zangief drops the Monster Hunter recklessly back down to the ring mat. Guess he doesn't want to over-do it and get dizzy, especially in a Rumble like this where nearly every advantage is taken.

Recognizing Yuri trying to sneak up behind her, R. Mika turns around and drops her in a similar fashion as Zangief has just done to MonHun moments ago, inspired enough to try a Giant Swing of her own.

Max notices, "Look at this!

Woolie excitedly proclaims, "Here we go again!"

The crowd chants for her as she begins to start her orbit-wrapping swinging session, one that looks a bit easier to go around with her swinging a smaller opponent with no armor weighing anyone down, as the speed seems to only be faster than Zangief's and the propelling force looking slightly stronger as well.

 _1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7! …_

Somehow, Mika manages to top the Red Cyclone's record of 15 rotations by about 10 more rotations, much to his amusement as he watches the whole time.

Looking back over to the zombie-apocalypse survivor Frank West, whose new weapon of choice is a beer bottle that actually seems to be half-full, as he takes a swig from it while watching Zangief's and Mika's giant swings from the back of the ring.

Soon enough, he decides to find someone to target, who happens to be Tracer stumbling in his way after getting knocked back by Sub-Zero, and the British agent ends up getting clobbered upside her head by the brown glass bottle in Frank's grasp, shattering atop her skull as she goes down. She is immediately raised up afterwards by her legs when Frank decides not to hesitate with 'going swinging' and starts making the full 360 with her body.

Max is pretty baffled by the effort going on in the photographer's part for this, "What the hell?"

Dino cheers, "EVERYBODY gets to swing tonight!"

 _1! 2! 3! 4! 5! 6! 7! 8! 9! 10! ..._

A good 20 seconds more of rotating, and Frank somehow manages to beat out both Zangief and Rainbow Mika's rotations with a solid 30 or so before getting dizzy and coming close to regurgitating a bit.

Max is surprised by what just happened, "I don't know how, but I think he won the swing-off!"

"NOW things are getting absolutely nuts!" Woolie proclaims.

Thankfully nobody's charging in to clobber Frank over the top rope and eliminate him while he's vulnerable; although that may change with #18 about to come in...

 **10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

Hit the music [/watch?v=YIf9Yf2O0hA], as the next entrant shows up on stage – although the music used is more associated with someone in the WWE, it fits this next woman coming in, a tanned beauty with long locks of hair, a blue, glittery face mask, and some hips that seem to trump those of even some of the more significant women who have entered thus far.

Woolie states, "Boy, you talk about 'butt-baes', Dino, but the Rumble just seems to be filling up with them quite quickly, and trust me, Twintelle here is just at the peak of perfection for that!"

* * *

 **Entrant #18: Twintelle [ARMS]**

* * *

Max notes extensively, "It's pretty easy to admit that Nintendo has managed to develop some very interesting waifu material the past few years – it's damn impressive given that Nintendo's generally the most family-friendly of the three main consoles of this and the past generations."

As she hopped up to the ring apron, taunts the other ladies in the Rumble ( _at least, those currently standing tall_ ) from the other side of the ropes, grooming a confident hand across her namesake-given hairstyle and her rockin' posterior before finally entering the ring. The men of the Rumble, mainly Zangief and still-tipsy / dizzy Frank West.

The French celeb quickly gets attention for more than her looks as she limbo-ducks a clothesline from Rainbow Mika, and then evades a leg sweep from her by doing a backwards cartwheel, garnering a bit of a consistent pop as she front-rolls and brings her legs around Mika's neck for a swift headscissors takedown, flipping her towards the ramp-facing ropes!

"Look at 'er go, she's already moving circles around the competition!" Dino cheers on.

Twintelle brushes off her shoulders and takes another pose towards hard-cam ( _all the while, blocking off Yuri and the Monster Hunter from the camera's clear view_ ), like she's just entered for a photo op.

"I think she's ready for her close-up!" Max's witticism flows through in a timely fashion.

Just seconds later, the well-endowed actress is thrown off her groove, when Frank, _still_ feeling the after-effects of winning that impromptu swing-off combined with some of the alcohol he drank, suddenly bumps into her from behind, stumbling past her and towards Zangief's corner at the bottom left. The Russian grappler lets the photographer continue to recover from his dizzy state, as he waves hello to Twintelle, and even gestures with his neck-worn camera for maybe an actual photo shoot, _in the middle of this Rumble match_.

Woolie considers the absurdity of this new interaction. "Uh, you think maybe now's not the time for flash photography?"

Twintelle seems to think alike with Woolie, as she wallops him in the gut with a rough kick to send him down into a resting position at the bottom turnbuckle.

Max says, "I'm sorry, but you gotta save the erotica for another time, Frank, for the sake of surviving this Rumble."

All the while, Zangief has just helped R. Mika back to her feet and is now targeting the Monster Hunter, and Orchid and Sub-Zero are _still_ in the midst of fighting across at the bottom right quadrant of the ring.

Back to Frank's corner, which the broadcast cameras focus on as a recovered Yuri dashes into view with a literal rear-ender into Frank's face, another showcase of her ass-based offense she made so clear back in the King of Fighters tournaments!

Not long after, Mika follows up on the Sakazaki youthful's example, smashing Frank across the face with a somewhat stiffer looking hip attack!

Woolie exclaims, "And all that thiccness built up the past few entries, seems to be coming together now!"

Dino ponders, "I'm conflicted – should I or should I _not_ imagine myself in Frank's position? I mean, it looks like it hurts, but does it hurt _good_?"

Max responds to Dino's odd question. "Honestly, it's for the best that we just not talk about that right now."

By this time, Tracer is getting back up, shaking off the shards of beer-bottle glass that still remain in her spiky hairdo. Yuri notices her and offers to her to join in what's going on at the bottom left, and even Mika wants her to join the fun.

After a moment, the Overwatch agent complies and takes a running start off the ropes near the top left quadrant of the ring before rotating for a hip attack of her own to the weakened photographer over in that corner. Poor Frank – all that ass getting in his face and it's more pain than pleasure coming at him.

All of this going on strikes as a bit of an inspiration for Twintelle as she watched on the whole way through. Motioning to her fellow ladies to stand back, she stands over the very much disoriented Frank in that corner, with her rear facing him, with much anticipation...

...and then regretlessly stomps down on his groin with one fell drop of the foot on him, causing a bit of a spastic sell on his end and some laughter on the side of the audience. _Devastating_.

Dino quips, "Take a picture of _that_!"

Bringing the photographer to his feet by his ear, brings him around town for a moment, before huffing him over the top rope. He holds on for dear life, regaining some of his senses, including mostly survival instincts, as he kicks around to keep himself from touching the floor.

Max yelps, "Uh oh! Careful there, Frank!"

Unfortunately, he wasn't exactly being completely careful, as his kicking around starts to knock around his shopping cart just to the right of him. The end result is some of the objects on the top layer spilling out bit by bit, including the zombie sitting like a cherry on top of it all; the corpse tumbles and falls to the floor, slowly wakening upon its splat to the ringside floor.

Woolie warns the photographer in danger. "Oh no, look out!"

Dino panics naturally. "Oh god run! Frank, quick, get back in there!"

As the countdown returns for #19, Frank West finds himself with another reason to stay in the ring with the zombie on the ground slowly reaching out to him

 **10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

The music upon the end of the buzzer [/watch?v=23rMd2r4Ark] rings in the nineteenth entrant. Although most of the contestants don't exactly pay attention to the themes of those who come out after them, mostly since they are all mainly from different franchises that they're usually unfamiliar with, but as Tracer stands by at the top left corner, she looks towards the stage, she winds up taking a second look back as she comes to recognize the person heading in, by the purple latex and the laser-sight equipped head-wear.

Woolie chuckles in anticipation, "Oh-ho-ho man..."

Max recalls, "Well, we've already had intel that Overwatch sent in 3 of their agents to enter this Rumble, but it looks like Talon is stepping up with their own representing force!"

* * *

 **Entrant #19: Widowmaker [Overwatch]**

* * *

The sinister assassin walks with a cold stare back towards the Overwatch agent, from the ramp to the ring, stepping down the aisle with intent to harm.

All the while, Frank West steps closer to the top left corner on the apron, having the shopping cart act as a blockade between himself and the zombie that he must really regret stuffing into that shopping cart. However, his relief is not long when Widowmaker sweeps him into a face-plant with a single wipe of the arm, causing him to tumble off the apron and to the floor.

"Whoa, hey! Wait, does that count!?" Max questions, given Widow hasn't technically gotten into the ring.

Woolie answers, "It counts, man! Sorry it had to end like that, Frank! Maybe you'll get your choice snapshots the next time the Rumble comes around!"

 **9TH ELIMINATION: Frank West [by Widowmaker]  
Time: 7:49**

Widowmaker uses the stairs at the top left to walk to the apron and then enter through the ropes. Tracer has just backed up towards where Zangief and the Monster Hunter are fighting. Her next victim after dispatching Frank West from the Rumble winds up being Twintelle, who takes a very stiff forearm across the face to knock her down, and the more brutal of the French beauties in the ring is relentless in strikes – the fans do _not_ like the sight of this.

Max commentates as this goes on, "Widow gets underway with the brawling – an expert at battering her opponents into submission, and sometimes _worse_."

Woolie voices worry on behalf of those watching, "I don't think anybody wants to see Twintelle manhandled like this!"

Yuri hops on behind the cold-skinned femme fatale, wrapping her arms around Widow's neck as she tries to take down the assassin. It's not that easy, Yuri; she gets snatched off and thrown over the top rope, back onto the apron. She holds on for just a few seconds longer before Widow hoofs her out with a big boot, knocking down this young practitioner of the Kyokugenryu Karate arts to an abrupt end of her Rumble run.

Max exclaims, "Out goes Yuri!"

"Well, that's unfortunate; hey, Yuri, you think your big brother's in the back to make up for your run?" Woolie asks, obviously referring to Yuri's brother Ryo.

* * *

 **10TH ELIMINATION: Yuri Sakazaki [by Widowmaker]  
Time: 5:01**

* * *

Meanwhile, as he makes his sad walk back up the ramp, Frank West finds himself having to get away from the zombie slowly crawling up the ramp towards him. Will we find out more about this slow chase? Who knows?

Back to the ring, where Widow has Twintelle on the ropes, slowly but surely managing to get her forced over onto the apron.

Dino asks, "Could she already be looking into a third elimination?"

Just after Winwood asks, Widow wallops T.T. with a fresh fist between the eyes, and the actress with much sex appeal is dropped off and onto the floor below, looking to have been knocked out cold by the choice fist in between the eyes.

"And she does!" Max proclaims.

Woolie assumes, "All those looks and athleticism, but it seems like those blows to the head were too much – time for an early trip back up the red carpet, I guess."

* * *

 **11TH ELIMINATION: Twintelle [by Widowmaker]  
Time: 2:21**

* * *

The battle damage is already pretty noticeable on Twintelle's face, one of her eyebrows a bit cut up from some of Widowmaker's punches.

Back in the ring, the Talon assassin has her next victim locked on closely, glaring coldly towards Tracer, and she looks back – with some of the competition taken down, Widowmaker has less to deal with as she looks to dismantle this representative of Overwatch.

The staredown that commences between these two takes the center focus of the hard-cam, leaving the other encounters around the outer ends of the ring ( _which composed mostly of Orchid v. Sub-Zero and Zangief / R. Mika v. Monster Hunter_ ) in the background for the most part.

Max takes this time to mention, "You know, with the cast of characters who have come out tonight, you don't often see rivals or partners wind up in the same ring – there's so much in terms of possibilities, that when moments like this come around, it certainly feels special once it starts to come together!"

Woolie utters, "The bad blood that develops, only makes things sweeter in the end game!"

As soldiers between Overwatch and Talon prepare for the square-off, the crowd seems about ready to rely on to take down her enemy – but hold on a second; the twentieth entrant seems to be on the way, in the marked 2/3rd point of the Video Game Rumble!

Cue the next track [/watch?v=1nCLBTmjJBY], which, like many of the other songs of entrants, doesn't really hint much of the next competitor, until they show up. This time around, the person entering not only gets a good pop from the crowd, but also story-wise, it's going to be a big help for the representation of Overwatch's operatives.

Max notices, "Hold on a sec – I think Tracer's got some back-up!"

* * *

 **Entrant #20: D. Va [Overwatch]**

* * *

Decked out in her sponsor-decaled bodysuit for the battle, D. Va stands out at the top of the ramp, letting the reception of the crowd soak in for the moment. She gives a friendly wave across to Tracer in the ring, who smiles in relief, knowing she's got someone who has her back. On the other hand, Widowmaker looks very displeased to see the Korean gamer head into action, as she knows the numbers game is slowly turning towards Overwatch's favor.

Heading down the ramp, D. Va takes quick notice of the shopping cart right before the ring ( _and it's best to assume it'll stay there since the guy who brought it in had just been eliminated moments ago_ ), and is enticed by the weaponry available. Her weapon of choice, out of all that was in the cart? Nothing but the good old-fashioned kendo stick – certainly something that fuels the fires of excitement under the crowd, as she slides in with the weapon and stands next to her fellow operative against Talon's ruthless representation.

"Oh yeah!" Dino roots. "This is gonna be one hell of a showdown!"

* * *

 **Statistics**

 **Current participants: Black Orchid, Tracer, Monster Hunter, Zangief, Sub-Zero, Rainbow Mika, Widowmaker, D. Va  
Unknown status: Lucky Chloe  
Eliminated: Reptile, Crash Bandicoot, Paul Phoenix, Diddy Kong, Donkey Kong, Mignon Beart, Mr. Karate, Yoshimitsu, Frank West, Yuri Sakazaki, Twintelle**

 **Longest lasting: Black Orchid / Tracer (tied since start)  
Shortest lasting: Mignon Beart (0:50)**

 **Most eliminations: 5 (Zangief)**


	6. Part 5: Strength In Numbers

Taking the smarter of routes in the 2-on-1 battle set before her, Widowmaker goes straight for D. Va's kendo stick in an attempt to disarm her, but is quick to defend her ally, clobbering Widow from behind with forearms across the spine. D. Va manages to shove the Talon assassin away and nail at least one strike to the gut with the stick to help bring the momentum in Overwatch's favor.

Meanwhile, Sub-Zero casts Black Orchid across the ring to the bottom left corner, but winds up missing a corner clothesline and heading face-first into the top turnbuckle. This leads to Orchid running up behind him with two knees to the back, which further damages him despite him remaining in the corner. Orchid follows it up with a flying elbow to the back of the head while simultaneously diving back-to-back against him.

Thirdly within the ring, the Monster Hunter, at the ropes in between the top left / right corners, punches Rainbow Mika away and nicks Zangief with a choice shoulder block to force them away long enough to head back through the ropes – however, the grizzled Russian is relentless towards the competition, taking MonHun across and slamming her down with a heavy spinebuster!

Max states, "Many wars are being fought within that ring in this Video Game Rumble!"

Dino wonders, eyes wandering around towards that ring. "Jeez, which bout do I focus on in there – it's like watching multiple channels at once!"

It's not long before it seems that Widowmaker has shaken off the cane to the stick from a moment earlier, elbowing away at D. Va relentlessly while also kicking away at Tracer right behind, a very successful case of multi-tasking as she goes between battering either Overwatch agent.

All of a sudden, Sub-Zero comes barreling towards the Talon assassin's direction, being whipped from one corner to the next by Orchid, who runs in and dives into the both of them as D. Va and Tracer stand aside.

However, the two Overwatch operatives find themselves in Orchid's crosshair, as she steals the kendo stick straight out of the young Korean's hands and brings her away and down to one knee with a single stick shot to the gut. Tracer ducks the next swing, but gets a knee swept away by a low kick from Orchid, and the stick to the head right afterwards, flattening her out on the mat. Orchid heads straight back to D. Va with the weapon in hand, but is suddenly caught into a drop toe hold, face-planting into one of the turnbuckles over at the bottom left corner.

D. Va is then struck down herself, hoofed in the face with a big boot from Sub-Zero, lashing out at the competition as he knocks down the gamer, and then turns around and gets his clutches on a still staggered Widowmaker, throwing her against the nearest corner and setting her up for a slow but possibly efficient attempt at an elimination. Meanwhile, the Monster Hunter is against over the top with her grasp on the ropes in danger thanks to Zangief, but at least she managed to send Mika over and onto the apron before winding up back there herself.

"Chaos all around the ring as of late," Max sums the current state of the ring, "enough of it that it's pretty damn hard to describe at the moment!"

"It's about to get just a little bit crazier in a moment!" Woolie retorts, pointing towards the countdown's return for the next entrant.

 **9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

All that's needed to get the crowd popping for the next entrant is an iconic jingle [/watch?v=rnf0q1zOTXs], as a familiar yellow and red hero that previously appeared in the moments before the start of the show comes running down the ramp.

* * *

 **Entrant #21: Pac-Man**

* * *

Max announces, "Straight out of the gate and into action, ladies and gentlemen – it's Pac-Man!"

Dino cheers, "The Pacster is in the house, baybay!"

Upon sliding into the ring, Pac-Man quickly makes a beeline for the biggest person in the ring currently – that being Zangief, of course. Hopping onto the Russian wrestler's back, Pac-Man has him occupied for a moment, as he winds up helping the Monster Hunter escape her worries of elimination for the umpteenth time.

The battle between the ice-powered ninja and the assassin with ice-cold skin continues, as Sub-Zero is still struggling against Widow in the fight for an elimination, and on the other hand, B. Orchid is currently trying to choke out Tracer with the kendo stick while D. Va finds refuge at the top left corner.

In the center of the ring, Zangief reaches behind and tosses Pac-Man over his shoulder and onto the mat before him, grappling him from behind as he lifts him up for a back suplex...

...only to be clobbered atop the head with a fire hydrant that Pac-Man seems to pull straight out of hammerspace! The crowd mostly recoils from the echoing bonk, ringing out even into the cheap seats, as the Russian nearly goes groggy off that. The hydrant lands square in the center of the ring all the while, as Pac-Man goes straight for the legs to try and finally fall the Russian heavyweight.

Back to the top left corner, where D. Va gets suddenly smashed further into the turnbuckles behind, as R. Mika makes it back over and into the ring and flings herself into the game with a big running splash!

Right afterwards, the Monster Hunter decides to add her two cents against D. Va, running across the apron and bringing a leg over the top with a kick to the side of D. Va's noggin, fully knocking her down to a prone position on the mat. The huntress with the great sword takes a moment to climb the ropes, looking to follow it up with a top rope dive of some sort.

She is interrupted, however, as Mika jumps up at her with a dropkick, ruining the Hunter's footing on the top rope and leaving her vulnerable on the turnbuckles. Mika is quick to spring up close to Hunter, sharing the top rope for a brief moment as she wraps her arms around the Hunter and gives her a fling over and across the ring...

...where Zangief suddenly catches her!

Dino shouts, "WHOA!"

Zangief only half-recognized what was going on near where he stood, the other half of his focus on Pac-Man trying to chop him down like a timbering tree, but he manages to catch the Monster Hunter in a torture rack-type position. Mika runs in to slide-kick Pac-Man and knock the Namco mascot down for a moment as she comes to the aid of the Red Cyclone. Together, the two wrestlers help each other in going for an elimination, with Zangief bringing MonHun close to the ropes facing closest to the hard-cam, and Mika climbing a couple of the ropes to meet up with 'Gief's height and bringing some extra strength to the effort.

Ultimately, the Monster Hunter takes her unfortunate tumble straight to the ground, as the Zangief / Mika team-up proves successful towards her elimination!

Woolie proclaims, "The Monster Hunter goes down with a splat!"

"SIX eliminations for Zangief!" Max definitively notes. "Plus a notch for Mika for this Rumble, not half bad..."

* * *

 **12TH ELIMINATION: Monster Hunter [by Zangief and Rainbow Mika]  
Time: 19:01  
**

* * *

Dino notes, "The Red Cyclone and the Blue Wonder's teamwork efforts are only just starting, and it may be big trouble for the rest of the participants who currently remain in this Rumble!"

Although the two competitors straight out of the Capcom Wrestling Association know how to work the crowd towards their favor, grand-standing after a group effort in the most recent elimination, most people probably have a feeling that the next entrant coming up will give them a formidable challenge to deal with.

 **10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

Onto the music for the next entrant [/watch?v=zIGhII3B7Eo]. Again, not much upon first listen for a quite a few of the viewers, both live and across the world watching the worldwide broadcast, but as soon as the emergence of the participant becomes known, jaguar mask and all, the roof shakes from the great reception.

* * *

 **Entrant #22: King [Tekken]  
**

* * *

Max exclaims, "As we see one Namco icon after another – it's King!"

"Well, it's gotta be!" Dino replies, bringing a bit of a reference across with him.

Woolie cheers, "Shit's gonna get real once he gets to the ring!"

The 270-pound luchador's running speed can probably nearly be compared to that of the animal his mask is modeled after, as he veers down the ramp and onto the apron rather quickly for someone who looks like a bit of a powerhouse to deal with.

Heading through the ropes, King manages a brief spin, a rotating start before he _clocks_ Rainbow Mika across the face with a brutal roundhouse that knocks her clean off her feet, and nearly into a backflip, in one clear swipe.

Dino recoils "OOH! Knock some teeth loose, why don't 'cha?"

Max proclaims, through some colorful wording, "That's his personal way of saying 'Get out of the fucking way, lady – my turn to wreck shit'."

Mika takes this hint to slowly roll away to safety, towards the ropes farthest from hard-cam... which is at least what can qualify the most as safety in this ring full of people beating the hell out of each other for the sake of elimination in this Rumble bout.

Woolie nods, "Yeah, good call staying down – won't want to mess with what's about to happen..."

Mika's roll-away leaves King and Zangief face-to-face ( _or face-to-mask, whatever one works best_ ), and the crowd lurking in anticipation of another great showdown to sort out, preferably violently, in front of all eyes watching. Certainly a dream match that fans have always enjoyed, a Street Fighter vs. Tekken bout that doesn't often come true, about to break loose in an actual wrestling ring for once.

With 15 seconds _almost_ feeling like 15 minutes in the staredown between the jaguar-man and the Russian mauler, it slowly devolves into an agreement into a old-fashioned 'test of strength' spot, as the two grapple onto each other and began enacting equal levels of power against each other.

Max notes, "Think we might be getting some old-school rasslin' vibes going on... an interesting throwback spot to start with, for sure."

"Oh, that's _definitely_ the Hogan / Warrior spot," Dino responds. "Camera-men at ringside better be prepared for anything."

As that continues, further to the left of the test of strength are Black Orchid and Tracer, still going at each other, but this time it's Tracer who's handling the kendo stick with no worry of danger, stealing it from her opponent. She swings at her fellow agent with a swinging strike to the stomach in mind, and it's ducked... and it clashes right to the back of King, who reels slightly from the strike.

However, rather quickly, the grappler recovers immediately from the strike, as he turns around _immediately_ , yanks the weapon right out of Tracer's hands, and drops it across to the other side of the ring, where Widow and Sub-Zero are taking their violent business over to the bottom right corner. All Tracer is allowed to do is sheepishly smile up to the larger opponent, knowing all too well how this is going to turn out, and then take one hell of a smash across the face, as King nails her with full-force, with a rolling elbow!

" _Geez_ , that was one hell of an elbow!" Max utters, as Tracer tumbles against the ropes.

Woolie advises, "Might wanna make an appointment for something, make sure none of those teeth are chipped off by that!"

Still targeting the British agent, and taking the opportunity for an elimination attempt, King backs up slightly before running right into her with a big boot to send her over the top. Just afterwards, as Tracer slowly climbs back up to her feet, Zangief grapples King from behind, brings him 'around town' and sends him in the agent's direction with an Irish whip that knocks Tracer away from her grasp on the ropes...

…and right on top of the shopping cart of weapons and other assorted junk, conveniently still parked right behind her!

"WHOA! Oh, that was close!" Max gasps.

Dino quips happily, "I think the shopping cart just made the save!"

Max then says, hand to chest, "Think my heart was in my throat for a second – she's one of my picks to win... at least the only one so far who hasn't been shit-canned from the match already."

The cart rolls off a couple feet away from the apron, towards the ramp, as Tracer stays laid on top, a little bit of a bad landing when she wound up there.

Back to the ring, Zangief grapples King from behind again, for a simple but effective back suplex... but King backflips out of the attempt, turns the Red Cyclone back around to face him, and challenges him to a straight scramble of strikes with a rough slap to start things. Soon enough, it's a ruckus full of fists as they trade punches rather quickly, and the crowd eats up as much as they can of this energy coming through!

Max hurriedly proclaims, "Here we go, here's the aggression, boiling over into INCREDIBLE levels of action!"

Woolie cheers, "Oh yeah! We got a real match! It's happening!"

"And look, check out what else is happening!" Dino mentions, pointing towards the countdown coming up on the stage screen. Time for the next entrant already?

 **10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

As one of the ringside cameramen focus towards the ramp, where is slowly starting to try and get herself closer to the ring on the cart, the next entrant's music [/watch?v=iy3qq7zc4EY] sounds off – at this point, the 8-bit track should be something everyone and their dog should recognize in some way as a part of gaming history, and they do, from the epic reception it receives, as the plumber behind it heads out for the Rumble.

* * *

 **Entrant #23: Mario  
**

* * *

Max proclaims, "More and more gaming legends are coming in to play! The man that helped make Nintendo how it is today, is here!"

Woolie exclaims afterwards, "Mario is _ready_ for the Video Game Rumble!"

Mario takes a leap at the end of the ramp, bouncing off of Tracer's stomach while she's still on the cart and using her as a spring-off to perfectly land in the ring on his own two feet, just as King and Zangief's brawl evolves into an Irish whip from the latter and a bit of a criss-cross moment afterwards.

As King comes towards the center point of the ring during the criss-cross spot alongside his Russian opponent, Mario makes another quick leap and suddenly catches the jaguar-masked luchador with a hurricanrana that brings him across the ring with some interesting strength!

Max states, "Off to a great start with that hurricanrana whip!"

What makes that move seem a slight bit more ridiculous is that Mario is half the height of King, given his post-hurricanrana hats-off to the pleased crowd. However, behind the plumber, Rainbow Mika returns into action after some time to recover, coming up behind him for a grapple, only for him to slip his way out of it and bring Mika harshly against the ropes with a drop toe hold.

Just at the same time, King makes a quick recovery off the hurricanrana, still fairly fresh after Mario's arrival, to see a somewhat groggy Mika against the ropes, with her legs held together by Mario to trap her in place. He naturally goes ahead and takes the opportunity, running at the heroic women's wrestler...

...and leveling her right over the top rope with a clothesline that knocks her straight out of the ring, bringing her run in the Video Game Rumble to a sudden end!

Dino exclaims, "Mika's out! The odds fell _against_ her this time!"

Max notes, "Another person that has partnered with Zangief in this match, gone so suddenly!"

* * *

 **13TH ELIMINATION: Rainbow Mika [by King and Mario]  
Time: 9:28  
**

* * *

The Red Cyclone seems to take action very quickly after his partner in contrasting blue got canned, grappling onto King and taking him closer towards the top left corner, and leaving Mario to himself, where Pac-Man begins to approach, trading in one Namco vs. Nintendo encounter for another.

All the while during that encounter between mascots, we see that Orchid has now replaced Sub-Zero's position in trying to eliminate Widowmaker, while the Lin Kuei ninja is now actively trying to eliminate D. Va, near where Zangief and King are.

Thirdly, back to the ringside area, near the entrance ramp, where Tracer is still looking to be careful with the shopping cart of hardcore horrors, intending to keep the cart balanced as she begins to stand upright atop it.

"Someone here may wanna keep an eye on Tracer over there…" Woolie suggests rightfully, "Y'know, in case something happens on her end."

Max nods, "Yeah I know; she's gotta have to be real careful on that cart – _real_ careful."

Back to the center of the ring – Mario points at Pac-Man a couple feet across from him, garnering much approval from the half of the crowd on his line of sight. Then Pac points back at the plumber and looks towards the other half of the crowd that joins in on the cheers.

Dino thirdly points out, "Well, you may be focused on Lena over there, but we got some Smash Brothers over here in the ring – I think they got more eyes on themselves than her at this point!"

All of a sudden, Pac-Man jumps for a dropkick, and Mario evades it quickly. Then Mario takes his turn and goes for an identical kind of dropkick and it's blocked just as quickly by his Namco opponent.

20 seconds winding down to 10 seconds during the Mario / Pac-Man scuffle in the ring, as a wide hard-cam shot zooming out shows the whole ring from apron to apron. From this, Tracer can be seen bringing herself back on-camera, one foot immediately followed by the other back on the ramp-facing apron, as she makes it back into the match after a impromptu moment's maintenance.

Dino yelps, "Whoa, there she is!"

"Solved her problems a little quicker than we thought!" Max utters, "I think... well, even the camera-men seemed a little slow to catch up on that!"

Naturally, the volume briefly raised in the crowd's excitement regarding Tracer's return into the ring, alongside the Namco vs. Nintendo bout, as hops over the top rope and back into the ring, sliding down to her knees to happily greet both Mario and Pac.

Then she gets a fresh kick to the jaw from King coming in, and back down to the mat she goes, along with some of the excitement plucked away from the air, out of the sea of cheers. From that, King promptly heads back over to pummel Zangief in the head a few more times...

Dino flatly says, "That's one way to bring fans to their seats..."

Max afterwards replies, "Well, they might be sitting on the edge for the countdown – here comes entrant #24!"

 **10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

The next song plays [/watch?v=SYQYnpmFcYA] as the next entrant arrives, and by the size and the look of his silver armor, and the fact that he legitimately rocket-boosts down the ramp faster than most of the competitors could run, it's clear that it's one of a few competitors remaining who had previously shown up earlier in the night ( _and two, in fact, are still yet-to-enter after this point_ ).

* * *

 **Entrant #24: Reinhardt [Overwatch]  
**

* * *

Max proudly announces, "And here is... the _third_ of the trio of Overwatch operatives, and most definitely the next big threat in this Rumble bout!"

Woolie "You see, Reinhardt's got the mass to take him very far in the Rumble, especially in the later numbers!"

Having added his recognizable helmet atop his Rumble-ready armor for the sake of protection when charging down ( _again, light compared to the usual gear in-battle over in the wars of the future_ ), it's quickly discarded and placed into the shopping cart for safe keeping once Rein's rocket charge halts at the end of the ramp, surveying the ring for five seconds before climbing up and over into the ring.

It's only natural that the German knight's first encounter within the ring is with 'Gief and King, the other buff brawlers in the ring, as he provokes the wrestlers with a shove to garner attention from then, and in turn, giving D. Va a little more room so she can get back into the thick of things, siding with the other representation of Overwatch. In case you're wondering, Sub-Zero has walked back over to spar with Orchid and Widowmaker

Tracer is not much farther away, readjusting her goggles as she scooches over, on her knees, to Reinhardt's left side.

Woolie speaks up, "With the whole gang here, it looks like this Overwatch team may be a worthy challenge to people like Zangief, people like King, and someone like Widowmaker should especially be weary of these guys!"

At this point, Zangief attempts to prime himself as superior with a shout meant to intimidate. It _kinda_ works, but only to the extent that D. Va flinches a bit. Rein responds with a roar back, and Zangief smirks in intrigue, recognizing the even battleground between the two.

Then Dino says, discussing the Overwatch trio. "I may not play the game these three are from, but I'm liking the battle lines being drawn here."

Just as Dino finishes up that line, King can be seen charging in to throw a fist at Reinhardt, and Rein begins the brawl with the jaguar-masked wrestler, and Max accordingly responds, "Whoa, well, here's the battle right now!"

The numbers game is most definitely no exception against King, as Tracer and D. Va each take a side of him and shoulder-charge into him simultaneously, as a means to try and hold him in place while Reinhardt goes in with some body and face ( _well, mask_ ) blows. However, Zangief comes in as temporary backup for King, grabbing Tracer and D. Va and then clonking them together, head to head, like two coconuts, to knock them down easily.

Dino quips, "Noggin-knockers aplenty!"

All of a sudden, hopping on and then over Reinhardt's back and over King's head, Black Orchid suddenly charges in and makes the jump across everything in front of 'Gief to clobber him with an elbow across the jaw to level him against the top left corner turnbuckles right behind him.

Max shouts, "OH, and Orchid, switching priorities!"

Orchid begins to grapple against Zangief, trying to lift against him as a means to eliminate. Meanwhile, Reinhardt grapples King and levels him across the ring, creating a bit of a domino effect as the heavyweight luchador gets knocked right into Mario and Pac-Man, who were still grappling with each other at the moment, and sends them crashing down with him.

Woolie says, "Got some makeshift cannonballs being flung around like nothin'!"

After a couple moments of progress-less budging against the Red Cyclone, Orchid is soon joined in the efforts by Tracer and D. Va when Reinhardt helps his fellow Overwatch comrades up and convinces them to switch their priorities.

"Smart thinking, targeting one of the long-runners for elimination!" Max notes. "Thing is, will this succeed with just them?"

"The only others who could realistically have the time to join in are over there," Woolie adds, pointing out the remaining contestants on the side, "Sub-Zero and... on second thought, probably just him; Widow would never help out her rivals..."

Just after Woolie mentions that, Sub-Zero seems to approach the clusterfuck going on at the top left, after laying out Widow with a hard scoop-slam onto the mat across the other side...

"Oh! Speaking of, Woolie...!" says Dino, as the Lin Kuei ninja seems to join the others in trying to get Zangief over the top rope.

About five seconds later, upon the realization that just those four (Orchid, D. Va, Tracer, Sub-Zero) wasn't working enough towards their favors against 'Gief, Reinhardt walks back over to that corner to join in...

...and his joining effort rather quickly supports the push-and-shove to get Zangief over the top, as the extra exertion suddenly brings the Red Cyclone over onto the apron, and then _did both his feet just touch the floor?!_

Dino sputters, "Whoa wait! Did his-!"

Max tries to speak up, while ringside referees begin to notice. "I think his feet may have-!"

"They did! The referees are calling it, it's an elimination!" Dino voices his surprise, among the crowd being on equal levels with him, as Zangief's hands ultimately give up on the grip, bringing him fully to the floor and leaving him stumbling around briefly, with a expression of awe.

* * *

 **14TH ELIMINATION: Zangief [by B. Orchid, Tracer, D. Va, Sub-Zero and Reinhardt]  
Time: 22:16  
**

* * *

As the quintet of competitors having just hoofed Zangief out with as much power as they could muster, Max does his best to assure audiences of the Red Cyclone's victory in a different way than the standard. "But folks, just know, despite his loss here tonight, he'll still manage to walk home with a record set for tonight's Video Game Rumble – _six_ eliminations from the Red Cyclone! Ladies and gentlemen, huge props for this man – 22 minutes of survival across from his #10 spot; thank you, Big 'Gief – if the Video Game Rumble returns, we'll be fully welcome to bring you back for another chance!

The crowd most certainly is giving that respect that Maximilian, among the other commentators, really wanted to give. A round of applause to the Russian superstar as he slowly and somberly begins to make his way up the ramp, letting the exiting reception soak in.

And then the countdown returns...

 **10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

Amid celebrations of some on top of others laid out on the mat – _**boom!**_

Fire _rises_ from the corner, immediately after the words of Disturbed's David Draiman shout: " _It's just another way to die!_ "

The metal rock [/watch?v=dsYVHZFukzc] combined with the fire erupting again at the stage rings in the next participant, clad in yellow, stomping his way down the ramp.

Grim words from Max usher in to the arrival of this next participant, "From one threat extinguished... in comes another..."

* * *

 **Entrant #25: Scorpion [Mortal Kombat]  
**

* * *

"The fire in this guy's gonna be hard to extinguish," says Dino. "Hell, he probably _personifies_ fire where he's from!"

"Scorpion's gonna weed out the weak, and do battle with the strong," Woolie proclaims. "The Mortal Kombat tournament housed a lot of brutal fighters, and with him and Sub-Zero, it's going to be all out war!"

The ninjas of fire and ice look to already be focused on each other, as Scorpion climbs into the ring with everyone else either having stopped to watch on (Rein, D. Va, Tracer, Rein, Orchid) or are still recovering from their battle wounds as this goes on (King, Mario, Pac-Man, Widow).

And within the first few seconds, Scorpion suddenly gets a hold of one of the participants, D. Va, when she least expected it, and throws her over the top rope for a very instant first elimination!

Max yelps, "Whoa!"

"Welp, one down!" says Dino, shrugging.

"Starting off strong already with that elimination!" Max then proclaims, looking towards D. Va, having been dropped to the floor in a moment's notice.

* * *

 **15TH ELIMINATION: D. Va [by Scorpion]  
Time: 7:43  
**

* * *

Tracer, Orchid and Reinhardt are among the few already taking their battle stance against the hellfire ninja before them, while King and the two gaming mascots he was tossed into moments ago, in Pac-Man and Mario, are just recently gettting up at their own separate paces, and only now noticing Scorpion across the ring, as the Shirai Ryu warrior slowly turns his head to face the remaining competitors, especially towards his ice-powered rival.

One by one, Scorpion spars off against the first few of these competitors within separate brawls, with a couple fists at a time wearing down the first two to step up in Orchid and Tracer – justifiable considering they've been in the Rumble since the beginning.

Before Scorp can square off against Reinhardt, however – he winds up seeing more bodies being tossed towards his general direction, as King Irish-whips Mario and then Pac-Man at him, with both going down one kick at a time and finding themselves down on the mat once again. King charges in himself immediately afterwards, and seems to fare a bit better than the first few to step up, coming to a trading of fists with Scorp.

Max proclaims, "Scorpion, going straight after _everyone_ , one at a time!"

Then Reinhardt seems to start joining in on the brawl, bringing his own fists to the face of Scorpion.

Max accordingly corrects himself, "Pardon me, now it's two at a time!"

It's not long before it goes back to one-on-one, as King gets staggered back by an especially rough punch to the side of the head, sending him backwards while Scorpion starts going at Reinhardt with gut punches to wear him down.

Already, it seems like we're almost halfway before the next entrant comes in, as Scorpion comes close to bringing Rein against the ropes with some more stiff blows against the armor of the German...

...until Sub-Zero finally steps in against his rival, grappling him from behind for a German suplex... ...but Scorpion jumps out of it! And the back grapple situation has flipped around! Scorpion keeps a clutch on one of SZ's wrists as he flips him around for a wristlock lariat...!

Sub-Zero evades with a flip around, and straddles Scorp's head under an arm for a DDT... no! Northern lights suplex from Scorpion, and a flip back around to his feet to lift the opposing ninja up in a spinebuster-esque position. He makes a run across from the top left to the bottom right...

...and collides harshly with King and Widowmaker down at that corner, using the Lin Kuei warrior as a battering ram!

"Holy hell!" says Max.

Woolie cheers, "That's a sequence fit for a rivalry like this!"

Scorp, King and Widow join one another on the ring mat, although Scorp remains on one steady knee. One should know how being so fresh out into the match has its advantages, and Scorpion definitely knows that... but regardless of that, Sub-Zero settles back at the top left corner... might be looking for something capable of a knockdown, even at a point like this...

Max states, "He's gotta go for something big here if it means eliminating him..."

Sub makes the run across...

...but finds himself going more up than ahead, bringing him up and over the top rope with a sort of back body drop!

Woolie notices right away, "But he hangs on! He's still in!"

Sub-Zero still clings to survival, holding onto the middle rope with both hands while his feet lingered a few inches above the ground. Scorpion, on the other hand, walks through the ropes to meet his polar opposite on the apron, backing up until he meets the bottom left ring post...

...he gets a short sprint in...

...and dives right at Sub-Zero with a tackling spear that forces his hands off the ropes, and his back right into the ring post across! His body tumbles to the ground, _and he's eliminated!  
_

* * *

 **16TH ELIMINATION: Sub-Zero [by Scorpion]  
Time: 16:16  
**

* * *

"The momentum is turning in his favor!" Max exclaims, fascinated by Scorpion's efforts to assert dominance to the rumblers in the ring through these eliminations.

All the while, the countdown shortly returns, seconds after the sudden elimination the audience was just in witness of, and Scorpion is among the few taking a good glance over to the numbers counting down.

 **10! 9! 8! 7! 6!...**

* * *

 **Statistics**

 **Current participants: Black Orchid, Tracer, Widowmaker, Pac-Man, King, Mario, Reinhardt, Scorpion  
Eliminated: Reptile, Crash Bandicoot, Paul Phoenix, Diddy Kong, Donkey Kong, Mignon Beart, Lucky Chloe (?), Mr. Karate, Yoshimitsu, Frank West, Yuri Sakazaki, Twintelle, Monster Hunter, Rainbow Mika, Zangief, D. Va, Sub-Zero**

 **Longest lasting: Black Orchid / Tracer (tied since start)  
Shortest lasting: Mignon Beart (0:50)  
Most eliminations: 6 (Zangief)**


	7. Part 6: Hot and Heavy

**...5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

In the midst of Scorpion's dominance within his opening minutes in the Rumble, another entrant emerges...

What would top a hellbound ninja who could manipulate fire? A man who quite legitimately _personifies_ fire.

[/watch?v=cRmwFBK0cyk]

* * *

 **Entrant #26: Cinder [Killer Instinct]**

* * *

Woolie proclaims, "Cinder's here, and shit's only gonna get more heated heading into the last stretch!"

Max wriggles an intrigued eyebrow, "Couldn't help yourself, huh?"

The man of plasma and flames formerly known as Ben Ferris, heads into the ring with a quick slide-in and stands with a bit of a hop in his step, adrenalized and ready for battle.

Dino notes, "Guess we must be lucky the ring's capable of handling a guy who's _literally on fire_."

"You and me both – must be the magic of the Royal Rumble..." Max assumes.

In the ring, Scorpion and Cinder are already starting to get up in each other's faces, with Cinder especially attempting to provoke the Shirai Ryu ninja. What starts as some shoves from one side turns into a brawl enacted by the other, with Scorp making the first strike and then beginning to throw fists back and forth.

About six seconds later, Reinhardt suddenly charges in from a few steps south of where Scorp and Cinder brawl, ramming against the two of them to knock them back. Both still remain on their feet when they retaliate in unison with a dropkick to stagger the German knight, and Scorpion afterwards charges at him, rushing into him with a tackle similar to the one that eliminated Sub-Zero just moments ago. The tackle is in turn directed towards the bottom right corner, where King had just settled himself moments ago after the clash with Scorpion, and he winds up smashed against the back of Reinhardt.

On the other hand, Widowmaker seems to have slithered out of the way for a brief couple of minutes, sitting near the top right as King and Rein collide, before running at Scorpion. Scorpion catches her upon quick notice, grabbing her into a front necklock and whipping her around into the ropes. With some shifting around in position, this leaves Widow hanging halfway back into the ring for a hangman's DDT...

...only for Cinder to break it all up by kicking Widow in the face to knock her out of Scorp's hands, and then start throwing kicks and fists at the ninja. Scorpion then whips Cinder towards the top left to cast him off, but as if timing wasn't any more perfect, B. Orchid happens to be dashing out from that corner, leaping up and nailing the human wildfire with a knee to the face!

Right afterwards, Tracer joins in the attack, as she jumps over Orchid while the Europe-residing agent was mounted over Cinder for some bonus punches, and jumps at Scorpion for something... something we don't see fully connect, as Scorpion catches her in a bearhug-esque grapple.

With a turn-around and a toss across, Scorpion sends Tracer back the direction she ran from with a belly-to-belly suplex, and in turn, knocks her into her partner in Orchid; specifically, one of Tracer's legs catches Orchid right across the face, and they _both_ go down!

Max grunts, "Ohh! Hell of a toss across the ring!" he says, chuckling afterwards.

Dino afterwards says, "That's why you _always_ check your surroundings in a Royal Rumble match!"

 **10! 9! 8! 7! 6!**

"Entrant number 27 – 4 entrants have won from this number in past Rumbles," Max notes to put over that specific entrant about to be revealed. Who could it be?"

 **5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

As Cinder kips up from his grounded position and locks eyes once again with Scorpion, the next entrant's song [/watch?v=ppEfCxwzASA] plays.

* * *

 **Entrant #27: Alisa Bosconovitch [Tekken]**

* * *

A bit of a mild positive response for Alisa when she emerges from the back, upright posture and open, curious hands.

Max says, "The _fourth_ to represent superstars of the King of Iron Fist tournament – and a interesting pull from the cast – Alisa is... a bizarre case, to say the least, and that's pretty much all I can really say at the moment..."

"I saw her show up on the pre-show..." Woolie mentions, "...and she doesn't look any less weird seeing her now."

Preparing for her dash down to the ramp, takes position in a three-point stance for what looks to be a running start...

...and then suddenly sprouts her android jet wings to soar her way down the ramp! Quite an alternative for this brief but brisk hover down the ramp to a quick screeching halt at the other end!

"WHOA!" Dino yelps in surprise, one of only a handful in the arena who didn't get the memo on the participant apparently installed with a rocket boost.

Max follows up on his previous statement. "To be honest, I'm glad I didn't bother mentioning that – guys out there, having no idea about this chick, are gonna get a surprise from the get-go!"

Well, after Reinhardt came in with a charge boost installed into his armor, it probably shouldn't be even more surprising the second time around.

Anyways, the arrival of Alisa brings in attention from the fire-fueled combatants in the ring, as Scorp and Cinder look towards the new arrival clad in a smorgasbord of purple and pink – and from the slight fade in her smile as she responds with a glare towards her competition, the Bosconovitch android already senses danger ahead for her.

Or at least, some danger that's partially extinguished when Reinhardt comes back from the ropes to go after Scorpion as a continuation of earlier. This leaves Cinder and Alisa to a fair 1v1 in the center of the ring, one of a few still standing out of all currently remaining in the Rumble, as the latter crouches down to her Namco-repping partner (one of, at least) in Pac-Man to tend to him, and all the while, Cinder looks and taunts down to her.

"Alisa's selflessness to her fellow competitor, does not seem to budge Cinder's guard here," Max notes.

"I don't think he cares, Max," Woolie retorts, "Cinder's in it to win it, not to be friends with the competition."

A bit more of a push-and-shove occurs when King, recovering off a recent bump, gets up behind Cinder and shoves the personification of conflagration closer towards Alisa, who capitalizes with a sweep that knocks Cinder off his feet!

"What a sweep!" says Max.

Alisa gets in a short jump to double-stomp down on Cinder to force him into a sitting-up position, and it's quickly followed up with a basement dropkick deal from King. An effective combo to say the least.

"The Tekken competitors are already working together!"

Meanwhile, Reinhardt is lifting Scorpion over his head in an attempt to eliminate the ninja, but it's reversed, and Scorp dropkicks Rein into the ropes. The yellow-garbed warrior is set with wearing down the heavy German glory-seeker, backing away for a potential running start that could prove to drive another competitor closer to elimination... only to get booted out of the way from the side by King. Bit of a rude move against someone in the middle of his own motives...

With that, we're already heading back to the focus on King and Alisa, and on the while, Pac-Man is beginning to get his bearings back together after some time on the ground. Rather quickly, he takes notice to the supine Cinder laid out in front of where the Namco mascot stands, and on first sight, he's a little intimidated by the man made of fire in front of him.

However, with some support from the Russian-made android and the jaguar-masked wrestler that make up Namco's current representation, Pac-Man begins to climb the turnbuckles behind him – a feat slightly more difficult than usual because of the yellow mascot's somewhat small and abnormally shaped stature...

"Oh boy... what's Pac-Man looking for here?" Woolie asks, intrigued.

"A dive, obviously..." Max answers "...but for him, he's gotta make the most in this high-risk district!"

"Do a flip!" Dino casually shouts out.

Among the thousands of fans watching live in Hammerstein, Pac stands as tall as he can be atop the turnbuckle...

...and is sent tumbling straight to the outside! has just shoved Pac-Man off the turnbuckle and caused his elimination!

Woolie proclaims, "And there he goes!"

"Everyone for themselves, no exceptions!" Max reminds rather quickly, justifying the bump-ruining moment that just occurred before everyone.

* * *

 **17TH ELIMINATION: Pac-Man [by B. Orchid]  
Time: 10:11**

* * *

"Straight out the window and onto the asphalt...!" Dino sets a metaphor up front to describe perfectly what happened there.

Following that elimination by her hands, Orchid is halfway hanging off from the ropes at the top left corner – it comes to realize at this point that she seems intent to try and use the ropes for her benefit, but at this point, her stamina is fading.

On the other hand, Cinder begins to get up and takes notice to Pac-Man sprawled on the outside – he looks more confused of what the hell that was than surprised that they got eliminated, as he looks between the outside and up to Alisa and King in front of him. King simply boots the flamin' Ferris in the face to knock him back down, as the clock winds down to #28...

 **10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

[/watch?v=PDM2qukzKwg]

Despite the next song blaring to bring in the next entrant, there's no current camera turned towards the ramp, as the focus remains inside; the reason of this comes from B. Orchid suddenly springboarding off the ropes and landing on her knees on Cinder, before front-rolling back to her feet and making a short leap to bonk King across the face, both of the mask and what's under it, to catch his attention.

The next entrant, given a moderate response by the fans, quickly makes his on-screen presence all the while, coming in the form of an average-built person in a red flame-retardant suit and a black gas-mask, brandishing a fire axe.

Dino realizes, "Wait, I recognize that gas-mask pervert; don't think we can't see you sneakin'!"

* * *

 **Entrant #28: The Pyro [Team Fortress 2]**

* * *

A bit of an odd inclusion when it comes down to the wind-down to the final entrants, but an interesting one to say the least. Also I doubt he ( _She? Probably he..._ ) is a pervert. At least, no one thinks he is. As Orchid and King brawl, and Scorpion and Reinhardt are going at each other again, finds his first victim in Alisa, as he swings the blunt end of the axe at her face to knock her down in one go, and then muffles out a laugh through his gas-mask, while raising the axe over his head like a Tusken Raider.

Too much showboating already, weirdo; Pyro pays the price with a boot to the mask from Orchid, as she knocks him out of the way with a spinning kick to make more room for the brawl between herself and King.

Max briefly laments, "Welp... we can't say he has eyes on the back of his head, or even on the side, at least."

At this point, Cinder is on his way back up, as he begins to get into a rough grapple with Alisa, and all the while, Tracer is now busy dealing with a semi-groggy Mario attempting to shove her off the apron. It doesn't take long for the British agent to fight back enough to keep the heroic plumber at bay long enough to return into the ring. She drops both knees onto the gut of the laid-out Pyro in front of her, and front-rolls into a run into the bottom right corner – where Widowmaker has been waiting for a good minute for a target.

The agents of opposing factions wind up in a bit of a clash that starts with Widow managing a back body drop on Tracer to send her over the top, but it doesn't lead to an elimination. Quickly recovering from a potential dilemma at the ring apron, and after heading into a trading of punches between the ropes, Tracer fights back with a few elbows to the face of the Talon agent to knock her back.

Orchid takes up on the follow-up by grappling Widow from behind and sending her even further up the ring with a back suplex that knocks her closer to the ropes.

Dino says, "With that suplex, it may lead to what could be a failed mission for Widowmaker!"

"The teamwork seems relatively consistent between Orchid and Tracer, it looks like!" Woolie notes.

King wants to add in his part to the combo by leveling Widow against the ropes with a clothesline that sends her over... but this was an elimination not to be, as Widow keeps her grasp on the ropes and keeps herself on the apron.

Meanwhile, Tracer springs around from the apron with a kick to the back of Scorpion's head to prevent him from trying to eliminate another Overwatch agent in Reinhardt, and she again lands back in the ring to rough up Scorpion enough to help Rein get the upper hand once again. With that, she moves on once she notices Widow on the apron, looking to recover. It looks like she's heading through the ropes for something...

"Uh-oh; what's she looking to do?" Max asks.

"I'm thinking he wants to try something regarding Widow on the ropes over there..." Woolie replies. "She took one look and it seems like she's got an idea."

Running around the top left ring post, and keeping Mario out of the way – and into the grasp of the Pyro – Tracer proceeds to let herself share the side of the apron that Widow stands by just a couple feet away. It's at this point that Orchid involves herself again to get Widow's attention towards her and catch her with a backhand to try and loosen her grip on the ropes. As Widow staggers briefly, Tracer springs up using the middle rope and hops onto the Talon agent's shoulders...

...where she flips backwards and _spikes_ Widowmaker atop her head with a _brutal_ reverse Frankensteiner!

"Jee-zus Christ!" Max shouts with surprise and glee intent.

"Whoaa _aaaa_! Re-verse Fran-ken-stinaaaaah!" Dino does his best Japanese announcer impression to authenticate just how crazy that bump was; the crowd cheering insanely across the arena says doubly as well...

Woolie feels the hype, "That was the best possible outcome!"

And within seconds after getting spiked onto the apron and left knocked out, Widow's body slowly slumps off and onto the floor.

"And she's gone!" Dino shouts in confirmation.

* * *

 **18TH ELIMINATION: Widowmaker [by Tracer]  
Time: 14:39**

* * *

Widow's elimination probably would get more of a reaction that what currently stands, but the crowd is a bit busy chanting "HO-LY SHIT!" at the bump that _led_ to her downfall, and after knocking the Pyro closer towards the ropes with a knee to the back, Tracer stands in the center of the ring, out of the way of the chaos around her as she celebrates the success of her spot.

Dino proclaims, "She may have been in this match from the beginning, but she's still giving it her all! Absolutely goddamn amazing!"

Don't be too cocky, Cadet Oxton; the second-to-last entrant is just about to head out!

 **10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1!** _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

[/watch?v=ZLDXIowUxv8]

With the arrival of one of the last entrants in this Rumble... well, after what we've seen prior to the show's beginning, let's say there isn't any need of a full introduction for this kunoichi...

* * *

 **Entrant #29: Mai Shiranui [Fatal Fury / King of Fighters]**

* * *

With a hand fan, her regular weapon of choice, waved around in her grasp, Mai makes her way to center stage with a clear sway of the hips in her walk, and an even clearer bounce in her bust – it's _very_ obvious that she's completely confident in her sex appeal, and given the unanimous cheers from the fans, it'd be real difficult to find someone who objects.

Dino quips, "I think things just got a little more heated, and I _don't_ mean what's going on _in_ the ring!"

Max announces, "Ladies and gentlemen, Mai Shiranui - probably _the_ most iconic character in SNK history, and... well, I'm sure it's easy to guess the thing that helps that opinion."

Woolie then says, "It's easier to guess _two_ things..."

starts her sprint down the ramp after a smooth cartwheel, with her hand fan now held in her mouth, as she speeds off towards the ring and onto the apron real quick – although it's a fairly normal speed when it comes to ninja standards – and she is already getting a pretty good start to her part of the match, as with a perfect short leap, she gets a hold of the Pyro, who was still leaning on the ropes at this point.

With her legs wrapped around his neck, Mai drags the Pyro over the top rope, and brings him right down to the floor for a swift and sudden elimination!

All Max could say is "Wow!" as Pyro has just gotten dragged out of the match in a moment's notice.

* * *

 **19TH ELIMINATION: The Pyro [by Mai Shiranui]  
Time: 1:49**

* * *

Dino says, "Mai already making an impact upon her arrival to the Video Game Rumble!"

"And she didn't even need to fully get into the ring yet!" Woolie adds.

Dino then asks, "Say, how long was he in?"

Max replies, "Easily longer than Mignon, that's as much as I can say."

Surveying the ring currently: King and Alisa have switched opponents, with the former facing off against Cinder and the latter against Orchid; Mario has been on a low point of participation, but he's starting to get back into things; Scorpion and Reinhardt are still brawling like hell against each other; lastly, Mai rolls into the ring at the same time as Tracer returns following that irresponsible bump, and it looks like they're already going at each other, as Mai jumps onto Tracer's shoulders and whips her across the ring with a hurricanrana!

"Whoa! Sendin' her tumbling around from that!" proclaims Woolie.

Cinder winds up stumbling towards Mai's general direction after getting stuck into a brief hammerlock and shove-away from King, so she nails him with a dropkick that brings him down on his back again. Challenger #3 comes as Mario goes for a dropkick of his own, but is blocked, and taken down with an interesting head-scissors whip akin to what just eliminated the Pyro a moment ago.

"She's got quite the energy, I can safely say that!" says Dino.

The sparsely-dressed kunoichi swiftly evades Reinhardt getting whipped across the ring by Scorpion, in her direction, as the German agent of Overwatch keeps his arms intertwined briefly in the ropes as he tanks a kick to the face from the Shirai Ryu ninja that knocks him back and his legs up into the air for a brief second – thankfully, he still manages to stay within the ring as he hangs on tightly to the top and middle ropes behind him.

Mai watches from the center of the ring as Orchid brings Alisa towards the top right corner and levels the robot girl with a couple knees to the face, before beginning to lift her up onto the top turnbuckle for an attempt at eliminating her from the match. From this point, the kunoichi spontaneously decides to jump in, leaping over Orchid for a knee drop to the gut of Alisa, before springing backwards, spiraling around Orchid...

...and smoothly landing in a devastating Tornado DDT!

"Holy hell, the athleticism!" Max shouts, as the crowd pops from the showcase of speed.

Mai works the crowd further in her favor by taking a bow, one hand behind her back, to thank them for being in witness to what she's done so far...

...but then King comes up from behind, grabs her and throws her towards the hardcam-facing ropes, where she goes over the top, but hangs on!

Cinder is back up now, and he attempts to attack the jaguar-masked fighter, but he fights back and throws the 'man on fire' towards the same ropes to join Mai as one of the next potential eliminations.

Partway through tumbling over the top rope, Cinder gets himself caught in between the legs of Mai, as she drags him further out onto the apron, until they're both in identical 'skin-the-cat' situations!

"Uh-oh!" says Max. "Who's going to lose their grip first!"

From that, King charges back towards the ropes and brings his legs outward between to kick Cinder on the top of his head, forcing him to let go and land on the outside.

"Aaaand there's our answer," Woolie states upon Cinder finding himself with his feet planted at ringside, confirming his elimination.

* * *

 **20TH ELIMINATION: Cinder [by Mai Shiranui and King]  
Time: 5:35**

* * *

Mai manages to return to the ring after what went down, flipping back over the ropes and into the ring, as Cinder called foul to what just happened to the ringside referees despite his elimination being as clear and clean as can be.

King and Mario are now battling against each other; Scorpion and Reinhardt are _still_ at each other's throats; Alisa is attempting to lock in a sleeper hold on B. Orchid to wear down the long-runner even further; Mai finds a good spot at the bottom left corner, waiting for Tracer to get up. This is what the ring looks like currently as the timer winds down from 20 to 10 for the final time of the Rumble...

Max surveys the scene winding down into the arrival of the final entrant. "Eight competitors in the ring... one still left to enter... who is number 30, in this Video Game Rumble?"

 **10! 9! 8! 7! 6!**

 **5!**

 **4!**

 **3!**

 **2!**

 **1!**

 _ **BRRRRRrrrr!**_

The lights go out again.

And then a red kanji suddenly blasts onto the titantron. The crowd explodes in cheers, recognizing the symbol all too well.

[/watch?v=6TzujQGZeWE]

The lights return, and run awash in red and white across the arena, as the arrival of #30 comes to light, under a dark blue gi and a mane and beard of red that combined to look like the petal of an evil flower.

This was a man whose fists knew no equal, and he was looking for a fight.

* * *

 **Entrant #30: Akuma [Street Fighter]**

* * *

Max speaks seriously on this new arrival. "Ladies, gentlemen and doods alike... if you want to talk about a game-changer... look no further than this man."

Woolie notes, "I know you've had to deal with this guy in a Boss Rage or two, I think you know the most about him out of the three of us at commentary over here..."

Max replies, "Not like this, man. This is different."

Maintaining what was basically a permanent, intimidating look of harm intent, stomped down the ramp towards the ring, as just about the entirety of the eight in the ring beforehand has stopped and stared as Akuma makes his way through the ropes and into the ring.

The final stretch of the Rumble was at hand, with a demon on arrival...

* * *

 **Statistics**

 **Current participants: Black Orchid, Tracer, King, Mario, Reinhardt, Scorpion, Alisa Bosconovitch, Mai Shiranui, Akuma  
Eliminated: Reptile, Crash Bandicoot, Paul Phoenix, Diddy Kong, Donkey Kong, Mignon Beart, Lucky Chloe (?), Mr. Karate, Yoshimitsu, Frank West, Yuri Sakazaki, Twintelle, Monster Hunter, Rainbow Mika, Zangief, D. Va, Sub-Zero, Pac-Man, Widowmaker, The Pyro, Cinder**

 **Longest lasting: Black Orchid / Tracer (tied since start)  
Shortest lasting: Mignon Beart (0:50)  
Most eliminations: 6 (Zangief)**

 **Apologies for the months worth of delay on this chapter: Not enough to count.**

 **The next part of the Rumble coming up is the last! Who will come out on top?!**


	8. Part 7: The End Game

_**Hoooo boy... to recap who remains in this Rumble by the arrival of #30: agents of different forces, Black Orchid and Tracer, entrants #1 and #2 respectively, having lasted the whole Video Game Rumble up to this point; a fellow Overwatch agent alongside Tracer, in Reinhardt; repping the King of Iron Fist tournaments of past, jaguar-masked King and android oddity Alisa Bosconovitch; Nintendo's definitive mascot, Mario; Shirai Ryu ninja and undead fighter Scorpion; iconic SNK sex symbol Mai Shiranui; and lastly, #30 himself – the legendary fighter, Akuma.**_

 _ **Get ready for the final stretch, folks...**_

* * *

As soon as Akuma steps into the ring, the focus is mainly on the dark warrior as he stands across from the competition around him. For about a minute, as he took a fighting stance to leave himself open to the potential challengers, it's a fairly quiet affair as the other eight around the ring glance around at each other, wondering who would take the first move.

...

Then everyone started piling up against Akuma with punches galore, bringing larger numbers into play against this one man!

Max shouts, "And here we go, the action continues!"

"They're _all_ gonna try to go ham on that man!" says Dino

" _All_ the warriors!" Woolie proclaims excitedly.

A good ten seconds later, all of a sudden, everyone goes flying a few at different directions, as Akuma has just shoved off the dog-pile of rumblers out of his face to a good reaction from the crowd! Being the latest to enter out of all the remaining competitors at this point, he's at his most healthy – and as a result, his most dangerous.

Woolie then says, "And even that doesn't do much!"

Max replies, "I mean, it's _Akuma_ , Woolie; it's gonna take a lot more than that!"

Out of everyone in the eight against Akuma, Reinhardt seems to be knocked down the least, on one knee near the master of the Dark Hadou as he tries to throw a heavy elbow at him, and it's blocked. Standing up as Akuma clutches Rein's elbow, Rein ultimately decides to fight back with a headbutt that actually does manage to stagger his opponent and bring him closer to the ropes...

...but when Reinhardt tries a charging attack to try and get a quick ( _and in this case, very shocking_ ) elimination...

...Akuma pulls down the ropes and the German knight goes tumbling over the top, and crashes to the floor!

"Reinhardt's gone!" Max shouts, sounding a bit surprised, as the heaviest guy of those who remained has just lost his opportunity at greatness.

* * *

 **21ST ELIMINATION: Reinhardt [by Akuma]  
Time: 10:24**

* * *

"Akuma draws his first elimination of the night! And most definitely not his last, I'll say that!" Woolie announces.

"Oh, most definitely, dude," Dino agrees, "we can all guarantee his strength after that."

Reinhardt stands at ringside, grabbing at his head in frustration as he realized how badly he screwed up in that effort.

Back in the ring, in the middle of getting back up after dropping down for the rope trick to eliminate Rein in a major way, Akuma finds himself getting stomped on the top of his head by Mario, who had just climbed through the ropes and springboarded onto him with a foot stomp! It doesn't knock Akuma down, but it does do some damage, even if not a lot.

Mario does a front-roll into a cordial bow for a decent ovation... and immediately pays for it as Akuma comes up from behind and sends the half-pint hero across and onto his shoulders with a teardrop suplex!

"Oh man!" Max yelps.

"You're gonna need a mushroom to help with that!" Woolie shouts out to the downed plumber.

Mario rolls back to his feet, in a heavy daze, before Akuma picks him up into a cradle carry. Unceremoniously, the Italian hero is lifted over the top rope and dropped recklessly to the outside to join Reinhardt as a new member of the Eliminated Club! The crowd reacts, mostly disappointed that Mario has been shit-canned rather easily after a bit of a rough going...

"Elimination number two for Akuma! Mario's out!" Max says as Mario rolls around in pain at ringside. Reinhardt can be seen slowly sauntering sadly up the ramp, looking back to notice who just got tossed out after him.

* * *

 **22ND ELIMINATION: Mario [by Akuma]**  
 **Time: 11:51**

* * *

Everything crawls to a halt for another few seconds after Mario's elimination, as Akuma turns back to the other six that remain alongside him...

...but then King volunteers himself as the next to step up, running up to the dark warrior and immediately going into a war of flying fists, as they start pummeling each other until King manages to get Akuma against the ropes, and whips him across the ring...

...where B. Orchid greets Akuma with a bicycle knee strike that knocks him back and around, where King returns with a spinning backfist to bring him off balance and onto one knee. Orchid and King follow that up with superkicks that share between both sides of Akuma's head to keep him there, before they rebound off opposite sides of the ropes...

...and are abruptly leveled as Akuma comes back up and knocks them both across the face with his elbows swinging outwards!

Max winces. "Ooof~! Geez... you'd have to check your teeth after something like that..."

And then Woolie says, "Akuma does what he pleases – and it seems like he's pleased by maiming the competition."

Scorpion goes up to bat next, charging in and throwing some punches that connect well against Akuma's face to briefly knock him loose, but he retaliates against the ninja warrior with blows of his own, until it's yet another game of 'Who Can Take More Punishment?'

Dino makes a pretty useful suggestion, "Just let them go at it, guys – they might be a while." That might fall on deaf ears considering the distance between the commentators and the action.

...or maybe it _doesn't_ , as Mai sneaks past the action going on in the center of the ring and goes straight for Tracer on the other side of the ring with a double-knee press to drive her further into the corner she stood at, then starts to lift her up onto the top rope. Scorpion and Akuma pay no mind to it, still battering each other with stiff punches.

"I think Mai might be looking for elimination #3!" says Max.  
Oddly enough, Tracer happens to have three eliminations under her belt thus far..." He then notes.

Dino further adds to the newly-developed fact, "And so did Widowmaker, and she ended up being Tracer's third elimination – will the cycle continue here?"

Alisa tends to King at the top right corner while he's down and moderately fatigued, while Orchid has rolled under the rope and to the apron on the other side, knowing all too well that the long stretch of competition she's endured is getting the best of her.

Meanwhile, Scorpion whips Akuma into the ropes and stops his rebound with a boot to the face that sends him into a brief groggy state. Then he runs the ropes behind himself with the intention of a clothesline or something alike, but is caught by a lariat of Akuma's own that floors him. Following that up, Akuma makes a rebound into the ropes, this time of his own accord, and nails Scorp in the chest with a big elbow drop!

Max casually proclaims, "Drops the elbow hard!"

While he's getting up off the elbow drop, however, Akuma gets only a brief glance of King running at him before he's grappled by the wrestler and tossed across the ring with a belly-to-belly suplex! The dark martial artist manages to get up within seconds, climbing back to his feet near the ropes, before running at King and walloping him with a spinning heel kick!

"Returning the favor!" says Dino.

"Always be alert when you have that guy around!" Woolie gives his word of advice. "Otherwise, you'll be sorry!"

Alisa jumps in for her Tekken partner to fight back against the Dark Hadou embracer, but is grabbed, brought across the ring, and tossed over the top rope! She holds on tightly to avoid elimination, for now...

"Yeah, bad idea," Woolie comments. "You really need to use your head a bit more when faced with that guy!"

Dino scoffs. "A bit?"

As Alisa keeps her stance at the apron, Tracer manages to avoid joining the android there as she kicks Mai away. As she stumbles by the ropes, she winds up cradling an arm around Alisa to keep herself still besides her depleting stamina. She's going to need to watch her surroundings in order to avoid elimination this late in the Video Game Rumble...

Meanwhile, Scorpion is beginning to get back up, as he tries pummeling Akuma in the gut as he gets picked up off the mat. With an aggressive shove, he forces Akuma's grip off of his head, but it also knocks him backwards and bumps him into Tracer behind him.

The chain of force causes a slight rebound of the ropes in between Tracer and Alisa on opposing sides, and as a result...

…Alisa winds up with her head and body separated from each other!

Dino briefly panics. "WHOA! SHIT, HER HEAD!"

Max attempts to assure "Calm down, man! She's fine – that's just how she was built!"

" _Built_?!" Clearly, Dino doesn't know shit about the Bosconovitch android.

Speaking of, the result of the separation of 'head from shoulders' winds up with Alisa's head grasped in the hands of Tracer, and her body falling from the apron and delicately landing on its feet outside – sure, it may have been a safe landing, but this still technically means an inconvenient elimination!

* * *

 **23RD ELIMINATION: Alisa Bosconovitch [by Tracer, technically]  
Time: 6:57**

* * *

It takes Cadet Oxton about as long as one would take to realize what just happened, once she notices the headless body of Alisa outside, and then the accompanying head in her hands, and she looks absolutely bewildered

The unamused glare from Akuma, having just turned around, doesn't help any of Tracer's favors as the British agent looks just plain uncomfortable about what she's gotten herself into in this late Rumble stretch.

And then Alisa's head suddenly explodes. Tracer goes _down_ and _out_ from the shockwave of flames erupting in her face...!

"Holy shit!" Dino's previous fright turned into bewildered excitement as he started to chuckle. "Okay, she's one of my favorites after that!"

Max corrected his corespondent. "Her feet touched the floor; she's gone, man.

"Awww, dammit!"

A new, identical head respawns onto Alisa's neck moments after the fact, and she regains whatever part of her idle mental state was lost with what she just went through – just in time for her to realize she's been eliminated, according to the nameless ringside officials.

On the other hand, in the ring, Tracer is hurt real bad from the point-blank explosion; Akuma has just sent Scorpion against the ropes to keep him at bay, and as he turns around, he notices Tracer against the ropes, primed to be taken advantage of...

...so he makes a brief spin, and with one fierce swing of the arm, he nails a discus clothesline that sends Tracer tumbling right over the top rope...

...and ELIMINATES her! The long-running Overwatch agent has been eliminated! The crowd is disappointed, to be sure, but mostly surprised with how her last minute turned out!

"And she's gone! All the way from #2 and she's eliminated!" Max proclaims, fairly shocked amongst the fans.

* * *

 **24TH ELIMINATION: Tracer [by Akuma]  
Time: 44:48**

* * *

"Over 40 minutes of consistent competition from this agent and it's all gone up in flames!" says Max.

Woolie then says, "I'd say it damn near literally went up in flames from that explosion, but maybe I'm a little sick in the head in poking fun at her dismay..."

"You are... you are _definitely_ a part of an effed up group," Max replies, "so I wouldn't blame you... but quite a long way, I gotta say."

"We still have Black Orchid in the running, so there's still a chance for someone to make the run from #1 to the finish line of the Rumble!" Dino assures. "And I would be all for it!"

On the topic of the woman having gone from the first two entrants opposite the freshly-eliminated Tracer, Orchid jumps out at Mai for a brawl between iconic vixen warriors as she forces her into the bottom left corner and batters her with some knee strikes. On the other hand, Akuma is still going to town on Scorpion with fists to the head, but behind him, King seems to be just about ready to jump back into things – and with Alisa eliminated, he's all that remains in terms of King of Iron Fist fighters in the Rumble!

With a brief climb to the top rope, King comes down from behind Akuma with a classic high-risk double axe handle! It budges Akuma briefly, enough to help Scorpion get a couple hits in before Akuma fights back to maintain his momentum with some elbows to the gut...

...and then turns around to clothesline King to the ground again!

...King kips up! And he makes a quick jump to send across the ring with a heavy-handled hurricanrana!

Akuma settles into the bottom right corner as King goes after Scorpion with some beastly punches to bring him into the ropes and goes for an Irish whip across the ropes. Scorp reverses the whip to try and send King rebounding across the ropes, but the jaguar-masked luchador suddenly springs about in a handspring, pulling a page straight from Tajiri's handbook with a handspring elbow to the face!

Woolie voices his surprise. "Hoh! Did that elbow to the face a few moments ago, jumpstart somethin' in his brain to make him go nuts like this!?"

"He is really starting to get back into this after a few moments down and out!" Max says. "He's all fired up again, and looking to be on a great mount of momentum!"

It's hard to disagree; after a couple minutes of lying in wait, it almost seems like King has managed an adrenaline boost, especially considering the big roar of excitement sounding off towards the crowd in front of a groggy Scorpion, whom he grabs and prepares to toss over the top rope.

However, Scorp reverses again, and sends King over and onto the apron! It quickly devolves into a struggle between the ninja and the animalistic luchador, and a trading of fists between both sides of the ropes. Then it suddenly turns into a trading of _headbutts_ not long after!

"Holy hell, these guys are going full ham on each other as a means for _someone's_ elimination!" says Max.

Dino then says, "The final stretch of the Video Game Rumble is getting insane!"

By this point, after sending Mai onto the ring apron on the other side of the ring, Orchid looks to join in on the struggle against Scorpion, coming up behind the ninja with two knees to the back!

Taking the advantage, King ducks down and through the ropes, in a position that makes it look like he wants Scorp to piledrive him, and begins to lift him over the top and over his head.

With Orchid going after Scorpion's legs on the other side, the 2-on-1 disadvantage may be troublesome in Scorp's point of view...

...and it leads to a hard-falling crescendo to the hellfire ninja's performance, as Scorpion is ultimately eliminated!

* * *

 **25TH ELIMINATION: Scorpion [by Orchid and King]  
Time: 10:29**

* * *

"Scorpion's eliminated!" Dino announces. "He's gonna need to make the Walk of Shame back to the Netherrealm!"

Woolie briefly details, "The numbers game can screw over _any_ body in this match – guys like Zangief have learned enough from this match so far to know how to feel on both sides of that kind of situation!"

Max speaks up, "Great note on that, guys, but with that elimination, we're down to four!"

The final four of the Rumble each take a separate corner; as Black Orchid and King take the top left and right corners respectively, Mai and Akuma remain at the other two corners where they were for the most part of the past minute.

The first to run from their corner is Orchid, followed quickly by King, who manages to catch up to the green-clad agent and knock her down with a Thesz press from the side, before springing back to his feet and charging after Akuma for another of so many physical fist-to-fist brawls to have occurred throughout the night.

Mai takes advantage of Orchid's position in the middle of the ring mat, starting with a leg drop before just getting on top and slapping the shit out of her

King begins to carry Akuma around on his shoulders for perhaps a Samoan drop, but Akuma shakes himself out of the position and clubs King with a forearm to the back of the neck, before grabbing him and throwing him into the ring-post back at the bottom right corner, with _enough_ force to send him spiraling through the ropes and onto the outside – no elimination has occurred, from King going through the ropes nor Akuma sliding out and joining him on the outside for a brawl around the ring.

"Okay, these guys are not letting up on each other, it looks like!" Max says, as the brawl ensues between King and Akuma.

In the ring, Mai has hooked both of Orchid's arms in a position for a proper Tiger Driver, but following the lift-up into the powerbomb position, Orchid suddenly whips herself down for a hurricanrana and sends the seductive kunoichi across the ring! Before Mai can get past one knee in getting up, Orchid guns for a superkick and gets her leg caught, as Mai retorts with a dragon screw leg whip to make her opponent join her down on the mat.

Back on the outside, King has gone for a chair and has starting swinging it at Akuma, who blocks every blow and manages to punch that chair hard enough to push his fist past the seat and into King's face!

Although the punch rattles King's core hard enough to make him stagger, he somehow manages to catch Akuma's arm in the chair by closing it around him, before throwing him into the ring post!

Max winces, "Oof! Just _rough_ with that ring post being put to some real good use!"

As the chair re-opens and slides off of his arm, Akuma really only feels mild pain from that; less than you'd expect from the average fighter, and Akuma is far from it, gotta say. Despite not being that effective, it's enough of a distraction to let King throw Akuma against the ring post one more time, this time slamming him head first into it!

Woolie adds Max's previous comment, "And there's the twofer!"

That second toss into the ring post was a step up in effectiveness, managing to keep Akuma put long enough for King to move on and target someone else for the time being.

In the ring, Mai has manage to get Orchid over the top rope, near the bottom right corner, and keeps her open with an elbow to the face, before

However, as Mai charges towards her opponent...

...King slides in and rushes from the side, pouncing when she least expects it and sending her flying over the top rope!

Max shouts, "Holy _shit!_ "

Dino proclaims, "Now _that's_ a pounce – period!"

And thus ended the brief but significant run of entrant #29, Mai Shiranui, as she splats against the ground from her very sudden tumble over the top.

Max says, "Well, that was certainly a way to get knocked out of the competition!"

"She must be lucky she could at least be able to break her fall with what nature gifted her!" Woolie quips.

* * *

 **26TH ELIMINATION: Mai Shiranui [by King]  
Time: 4:55**

* * *

"She may not have been in long," Max says, "but she made a name for herself with two eliminations!"

Woolie says afterwards, "This crowd may be disappointed for her now, but there's still a few choice favorites left!"

A triangle of truly gifted fighters of different backstories: King, Akuma and Orchid... a very interesting final three with Namco, Capcom and Rare / Microsoft properties being represented...

…

The pile-up quickly begins with Orchid and King going for a double-team on the harbinger of Satsui no Hadou in the center of the ring – they both have found the common enemy, and are going at him with as much aggression as they have left!

"Here we go! _Here we go!_ The final three have enacted the final act of war!" Max proclaims.

"There can be only one!" says Woolie.

Max then says, "And Akuma seems to be tanking all this punishment!"

'Tanking' is right, as while he handles the blows that make him only somewhat budge from his stance in the center of the ring, Akuma stays standing and even throwing some fists outwards to try and fight back against the handicap situation he's been dropped into.

Ultimately, he manages to stagger both Orchid and King and stop their offense, capitalizing at first by whipping Orchid into the bottom left corner. As soon as he goes for King, however, the offense is reversed as King inverts the Irish whip and sends Akuma crashing into that same corner, slamming him into Orchid!

King jumps in for a Shining Wizard knee into the corner that clashes into both opponents, before landing back on his feet and whipping Akuma across to the top right, then grabbing Orchid and tossing her across as well...

...where she winds up crashing shoulders-first into Akuma's gut! King runs and jumps one more time for more knees to the face, this time both knees across Akuma's head!

King rolls down Orchid's back and comes up behind her to go for some sort of belly-to-back suplex variant... However, as Akuma turns around as well, it looks like King _might_ be going for a double back suplex, and the crowd may be anticipating it as well...

...but Akuma jumps over on the initial lift attempt and lands right behind King! King maintains a German suplex position behind Orchid, but so does Akuma behind King...

...and he lifts and tosses them both with his own German suplex! Holy hell, the crowd pops for this, especially on the ring-scale distance that Orchid gets tossed across!

Resulting from witnessing this this, Woolie devolves into a laughing fit of excitement.

Meanwhile, Max calls, "That was – that was _ridiculous_ what we just saw there!"

Back to Woolie, who manages to get a few words out, "That was dope! That was _so dope_!"

That suplex-the-suplex spot takes quite a bit out of the three competitors remaining, especially on the end of B. Orchid and King – Akuma takes ten seconds to get back to his feet, and another fifteen to catch his breath before getting back to business.

Once recovered, the dark warrior does a front roll over King's body, managing to pick him up midway through into a fireman's carry position, front and center, facing towards the hard-cam with a very darkly intense stare towards it.

With a toss over and onto the knee, Akuma completes the fireman's carry neckbreaker on King to bring him to a seated position, perfect...

...for the follow-up kick to the face that fully knocks the wrestler down!

Max grunts, "Oof! He is just not stopping on the punishment!"

"But that might be enough to try for an elimination, though!" Woolie says. "The jaguar's losing so much steam 'cause of that guy!"

Just as Woolie says that, Akuma begins to pick up King by the mask, and directs him towards hard-cam as he throws him towards the ropes; King winds up going over the top rope, to the apron, and Akuma looks set to continue the punishment until the masked marvel is eliminated...

However, behind him, Orchid is still in the middle of recovery out from that suplex spot moments ago, keeping her grip on the ropes beside her as she tries to get herself back into the middle of things.

Figuring out not long after that simple punches won't do enough to out the beastly wrestler, Akuma tries for a sort of vertical suplex toss-out, as he gets the front necklock and the arm draped over... but on the lift, he can only manage so far before King bends his legs to wrap over the middle rope, holding himself down.

...Sneak-attack low blow from Orchid! Akuma briefly goes limp and in turn lets go of King, who returns the favor by latching a front necklock of his own and attempting to drag Akuma over the top rope as a means to join him on the apron. Orchid lays near the bottom left corner to continue recuperating, as King continues to try and force Akuma out of the ring...

...but Akuma reverses, with a northern-lights suplex back into the ring!

Dino says, "Akuma avoids trouble again!"

Akuma rolls over onto his feet, while keeping himself latched around King, as he lifts him up and brings him closer to the ropes. All the while, Orchid is regaining her composure surprisingly well at this point, and she's recovered enough to fight back from behind, attempting to blindside Akuma – with an effort that winds up suddenly failing as Akuma snaps back around and batter her right back!

The situation has somewhat turned around when it comes to who Akuma is fighting at this point, with King choosing now to try and attack from behind like Orchid did seconds before, by clubbing the back!

What results is a loop of back-and-forth as Akuma turns, smacks and repeats to fight back against both threats, ending a few moments later with Akuma knocking King into a momentary stumble and tackling Orchid into the corner, as he looks to climb to the top.

Max notes, "This may be a good idea, but it also may backfire real bad!"

Going high-risk with the top rope dive, Akuma jumps onto King with the crossbody...!

...but King rolls back over onto his feet with the dark-gi warrior cradled in his arms, in a backbreaker position, and slams him spine-first into the bottom right corner! Akuma is left hanging upside down in the Tree of Woe as King quickly climbs past him up to the top – he might be going for some sort of double foot stomp, but as he stands atop the top rope...

...Akuma springs up and smashes the luchador with a headbutt to stagger him! Akuma adjusts himself to get his feet standing on the top turnbuckle as he rains down with punches

Woolie's intuition has him assuming, "Somebody's gonna fall off here – I can feel it...!"

"Could we see someone drop out of the Rumble?" Max wonders, given the danger at the top turnbuckle. "This does not look like a good position for either man!"

Dino retorts, "Well, it's gotta be ending soon – we've only got this place for the hour!"

All of a sudden, comes rushing back into the ring with the steel chair that King brought in moments earlier; she presumably slid out just before the beginning of Akuma and King's current exchange, but she ends up losing that chair to Akuma when he watches his back and elbows her away, catching the chair in a free hand and pretty much slapping King with it.

King falls backwards, hanging down from the turnbuckle and towards the outside in a modified Tree of Woe position. Akuma coordinates his upcoming actions with precision and the least amount of risk of elimination in mind...

...and comes down a chair-shielded guillotine leg drop down on the chin of King! He flips the rest of the way through and lands on the outside, for the elimination!

"And there goes King!" Max announces.

* * *

 **27TH ELIMINATION: King [by Akuma]  
Time: 17:11**

* * *

"We're down to two, boys!" Dino cheers. "Time for the last stand!"

B. Orchid is finding herself on the wrong side of momentum with Akuma on the other side of the ring, as the two stand off among the fans eager to witness the end.

"As of now, Akuma has four eliminations!" Max details. "He can make it five if he eliminates Orchid, _or_ Orchid can make the tie with four alongside Tracer and the freshly-eliminated King by eliminating Akuma, but either way, one of these two will be the winner!"

Woolie says, "All that remains between these two is a little thing we like to call _glory_ – ya gotta grab for shit, and this is the place to do it!"

Max responds, "Well, I mean, it's a Royal Rumble, not a ladder match, but I see what you mean..."

And so, with the final two, we see the engagement of the classic back-and-forth spot, as B. Orchid lays into Akuma to cheers, and Akuma returns the favor each time with boos...

" **Boooo... Yaaaay! …**

 **Boooo... Yaaaay! …**

 **Boooo... Yaaaay!** "

Akuma starts to stagger a bit...

" **Yaaaay! Yaaaay! Yes! Yes! Yes!** "

Orchid is starting to get the advantage again, bringing Akuma to his knees as she lays in some kicks to the chest, Daniel Bryan style...

Max says, "She's got the momentum – here she comes!"

She bounces off the ropes behind her...

...and is laid out abruptly with an Akuma lariat!

"Aaaand _there it goes_..." laments Max.

Orchid's mind is nearly scrambled by that strike, as she's knocked down and very fatigued – being #1 has more cons than pros, it's safe to say that...

Akuma has the chair again... ready to bring the pain some more and perhaps get the Rumble victory... he smacks the chair against the ring canvas in the midst of his intent to maim the opposing finalist.

Standing over the grounded Orchid, Akuma begins to raise the chair...

...but it's suddenly grabbed and halted before he could strike!

"Whoa—King is—King is stopping Akuma!"

Indeed, King's back on the apron, grabbing onto Akuma and the chair, just about locking in a Cobra Clutch to keep him trapped against the ropes!

"He's out for revenge from that elimination!" Woolie notes, recalling a couple minutes earlier.

Max questions, "Is this even mentioned in the rules of the match?"

"Nope!" Dino responds. "If it didn't stop guys from doing this in earlier Rumbles and Battle Royals in history, it won't now! This shit's legal!"

Akuma's first thought of violent retaliation is to headbutt the shit out of King until he falls off the apron, which works as he expected – after at least five consecutive headbutts – but King manages to successfully steal the chair out of the Dark Hadou warrior's hands, leaving him disarmed of his weapons.

And to add insult to injury – _superkick_ _from Orchid!_ Akuma tumbles over the top rope!

...And his feet wind up touching the floor!

"And he's eliminated!" Max then cheers, as does the crowd, upon what looks to be the finish of the Rumble!

* * *

 **28TH ELIMINATION: Akuma [by Black Orchid]  
Time: 8:12**

* * *

Dino begins to cheer. "And that's all she wro—woah _wait a minute_!"

All of a sudden, right in the middle of preparing to celebrate a hard-earned victory, Orchid finds herself getting chaired right in the face!

The cheers get almost immediately shut down as they realized something that was overlooked, among the sudden re-emergence of a participant that all but vanished from the match over 25 minutes ago

Max is utterly baffled. "Wait... Lucky Chloe!?"

"...She was under the ring!" Woolie gasps in realization. "Holy shit, why didn't we notice! The referees and EMTs clearly didn't!"

Especially correct in mentioning the EMTs, considering there was a great big, mostly dried splat of darkened red blood from the idol's nose and oozing down from the absolute beating she took, and a bit of a jacked-up look within her rustled hair and her crooked headphones. What a mess, and what an opportunist as well, it looks like!

Dino then says, "Scotty 2 Hotty must be kicking himself in realizing he could've done that!"

Orchid climbs up the ropes, disoriented and a bit bloodied from the hard-as-bricks chairshot she just took – Lucky Chloe drops the chair once she sees a gateway of victory...

...and charges in for the clothesline to send Orchid right over the top! LC immediately runs off towards the top left corner to celebrate!

Max still sounds surprised as hell to say, "A clothesline to send her over!"

* * *

 **29TH ELIMINATION-**

* * *

"Wait a minute! _Wait a minute!_ "

Dino is the first of the commentators to realize, "The feet! Only one foot touched the floor!"

A correct fact from Mr. Winwood, as Orchid's left foot does lighty scrape across the floor, but her other leg maintains a rest on the – she was definitely going full Shawn Michaels with her recovery!

Pulling a full splits as she gets her other leg across towards the other side of the apron, Orchid slowly slides in backwards, rolling and backflipping towards the top left corner...

...in time to catch the oblivious neko-dancer with a Pele kick! Lucky's staggered by the sudden kick!

Orchid hits a clothesline of her own in the corner, to send LC right over, and the elimination is swift and sudden!

* * *

 **29TH ELIMINATION: Lucky Chloe [by Black Orchid]  
Time: 36:55 (if we count her time of hiding)**

* * *

The bell rings – _now_ the match is over!

Jeremy Borash gets his microphone ready to announce the winner. " **Ladies and gentlemen, the winner of the first Video Game Rumble – Black Orchid!** "

One of the ringside referees are quick to get into the ring with the title belt, a white and gold title strap akin to the Big Gold Belt of NWA, WCW and WWE fame, and to hand it to the winner in , who kneels in the center of the ring amid the cheering crowd. She handles the title belt in her hands, taking heavy breaths as she lets the sense of accomplishment soak in.

Max announces, "From the _very beginning_ of the match, entrant #1 – Black Orchid has managed to triumph over twenty-nine for the victory!"

Woolie mentions, sounding a bit exhausted himself by the Rumble's insanity to its very end. "Fifty five—fifty six minutes, just nearing a full hour... _Absolutely insane._ " He starts audibly applauding at this point."My girl, you got the instinct!"

Dino says, "We could've almost had a completely different kind of story if she didn't think so fast in the face of elimination – and any timeline that involves Lucky Chloe as a winner of anything big like this Rumble, would've been the darkest timeline..."

As Orchid raises the Video Game Rumble championship belt in one hand, maintaining her kneeling position, Max speaks up again. "Black Orchid - the winner of the Video Game Rumble, and one who definitely deserves it for her effort... at least, not that Chloe _never_ would deserve it either, considering her strategy..."

Dino retorts quickly, "Remember what I said, Max; 'darkest timeline'. Plus, your friend Kenny would be _piiiissed_."

Max shrugs. "Well, you got me there," then chuckles, "you really got me there with that."

Takes a moment for some pyrotechnics to shower around the arena as B. Orchid begins to stand up, the title belt draped over her shoulder as she leans against the ropes. Her theme sounds out, loud and proud to accompany her moment of victory.

Sounding off in the last minute of the broadcast, Max speaks for his fellow doods. "A few thousand watching here in Hammerstein, and many more watching via Twitch – to all of you, we thank you for watching a showcase of gaming's finest! And we are thankful for witnessing it along with you! Live from Manhattan, New York, this has been the Video Game Rumble – and as always, ' _Shine On_ ', doods!"

And with that, and the fade to black, thus ended _a historical moment of wrestling / gaming history..._

* * *

 **Final Statistics**

 **WINNER: Black Orchid**

 **Elimination order from start to finish:  
Reptile, Crash Bandicoot, Paul Phoenix, Diddy Kong, Donkey Kong, Mignon Beart, Mr. Karate, Yoshimitsu, Frank West, Yuri Sakazaki, Twintelle, Monster Hunter, Rainbow Mika, Zangief, D. Va, Sub-Zero, Pac-Man, Widowmaker, The Pyro, Cinder, Reinhardt, Mario, Alisa Bosconovitch, Tracer, Scorpion, Mai Shiranui, King, Akuma, Lucky Chloe**

 **Match time from start to finish: 56 minutes, 13 seconds**

 **Longest lasting: Black Orchid (start to finish from #1)**

 **Longest lasting before elimination: Tracer (#2, 44:48)  
Runner-ups: Lucky Chloe (#13, 36:55), Zangief (#10, 22:16)**

 **Shortest lasting: Mignon Beart (#12, 0:50)**  
 **Runner-ups: The Pyro (#28, 1:39), Twintelle (#18, 2:21)**

 **Most eliminations: 6 (Zangief)**  
 **Runner-up: Black Orchid (5), King / Tracer / Akuma (4)  
**

 _ **With the end-of-Rumble statistics finalized, we may be finished with the event itself, but we still have a post-show, with exclusive interviews, to go through – stick around...**_


	9. Equally Obligatory Post-Show Interviews

_**Let's get to the aftermath.**_

 _ **...**_

 _ **Welcome to the aftermath.**_

 _ **Throughout the middle of / end of the Rumble, we caught up with many of the competitors who participated, including the winner, and it comes with luck that they didn't mind giving their post-match thoughts to us.**_

* * *

 **Tracer, Entrant #2 – 24th elimination, longest lasting participant before elimination (44 minutes, 48 seconds)**

The UK-born Overwatch agent sits backstage, sweaty and dirtied with explosion-caused soot, and looking very much exhausted after so much of an effort.

"I did my best out there... nearly 45 minutes out there, that's how much my efforts got me tonight… I mean, I may have not gone all the way; hell, I haven't even made final four, but... if this show was meant to showcase some of the best that these video game universes have to offer, I gotta say, I think I made a great first impression. For my country, for the organization I work for, I did my damnedest and... even if I didn't win, it was far from a waste of time... but that's kinda easy to say – after all... time's on _my_ side."

* * *

 **Mai Shiranui, Entrant #29 – 26th elimination**

The alluring kunoichi is currently in the middle of fanning herself off after having worked up a bit of a sweat in the ring some moments ago, and she is nearly on her way out of the building, it seems.

However, an unseen interviewer looks to have met up with her, " _Umm... Ms. Shiranui?_ "

She takes notice of the camera. "Hmm? And _you_ are?"

" _Nobody in particular – listen, we'd like a few words from you; you may have not lasted very long in the match, but you have managed a good performance with your two eliminations in that short timespan – your thoughts?_ "

Mai smiles confidently, with a light shrug alongside. "What is there to say? Nothing but greatness from Japan's #1 kunoichi, as usual! … Hmm... wait, you _are_ filming back here, right?"

" _Why is that important?_ "

"Well, let's just say that the fanboys out there _would_ like a little more of _this_ ," Mai's tone nearly turns sultry as she turns and poses, letting the camera linger on her, "before I head off – I feel like they deserve it, as a bit of a make-up gift for me not coming out the victory... and hopefully they know this is _not_ the last you'll see of me – I'll be back when you're arranging the next Rumble, better than ever, and I can bank on that!"

She takes a couple steps away from the camera, before she stops and remembers one more thing. "Ohh, and it's _Mrs._ Shiranui; sorry if that disappoints anyone, but that's just how love finds a way... speaking of, I'm hoping Andy isn't too disappointed..."

* * *

 **Zangief, Entrant #10 – 14th elimination, most eliminations during the match (6)**

The Russian grappler sits by himself, looking confident with his showcase in the match.

"Heh-heh-heh... 'most eliminations in the Rumble'... that is the result of _true_ muscle power! And the muscle of a wrestler is the key factor to their conquest of the ring! ...I may not have come out the victor... but my impact has been felt regardless! The next time I take part, it'll change... and I'll be the champion soon enough – and the Red Cyclone will count on it!"

* * *

 **Lucky Chloe, Entrant #13 – final / 29th elimination of the match, second-longest lasting before elimination (36 minutes, 55 seconds)**

Another off-screen corespondent has met up with the breakdance idol, wiping away at the crusty blood from her busted nose with a hand towel.

" _Uh, miss Chloe?_ "

Her eyes light up in notice of the camera heading up to her. "'Nya?"

" _We in the Video Game Rumble committee would like to talk to you about your interesting performance in the match-up – you've officially accumulated the second-longest run in the match._ "

Chloe smiles, looking amazed by that statistic. "And I did good, didn't I? 'Nya, nobody saw that coming, didn't they?" She then begins to slightly lament, "Now I wish it actually got me the win..."

" _Well, despite the loss, and the..._ _ **negative**_ _reaction you've received from the fans tonight, we'd like to say you're always welcome back for the next time we hold a Rumble match._ "

Unlike what the corespondent thought, it seems like the audience's reception was fairly clear on the cat-headphoned dancer, with how well she looks to take it. "'Nya, I expected as much. I'm a pop idol straight from Japan – what was I really expecting from a country that outright hates me? I mean... as they said, if they don't like me at my worst... they sure as crap don't deserve my best either. Even with that, I'm going to give even more for the next time I come around... and I'm going

" _Well... thank you for your time... again, you're always welcome back for the next round._ "

Midway through the corespondent speaking, Lucky Chloe's expression turns a bit worrisome and tense, as she glances at something off-camera. "'Nya, that's nice – listen, I gotta go~!"

She makes a sudden run for it, presumably being pursued by someone if the sudden shouting of another individual behind the camera, along with said camera getting knocked over in the resulting mad dash, indicates much of what's happening.

" _ **Come back here, you disgrace to cuteness!**_ "

If the high-pitched, shrill tone is to describe anything, it was clearly another certain participant from the Rumble match – the one that nearly took Lucky Chloe completely out of the match, in fact...

* * *

 **Mignon Beart, Entrant #12 - 6th elimination, shortest time in the Rumble match (50 seconds)**

It's about a good minute after the last interview, and the worried off-screen interviewer has caught up with the easily-irritated witch, who seems to have lost track of her newfound rival's whereabouts, as the cameras manage to get to her as she paces around in a short spot in the middle of a random hallway in the backstage area. Her breaths are short but heavy, and her arms are crossed as she just outright looks irritated.

The interviewer has to ask, " _Are you okay?_ "

"I'm fine!" Mignon's expression and tone speak otherwise...

" _Uhh... w-we've been wondering to ask since your short appearance at the Rumble – tell us, what is your reason for this, this vendetta against fellow competitor Lucky Chloe?_ "

"... Mignon doesn't like to be offended. _At all_. This 'Lucky Chloe' character does not know the first thing about the mindset of cats. She isn't fooling anyone; _she_ is a _false_ feline!"

" _...'False feline'?–_ "

Mignon stomps and whines. "You heard me! Don't act like it doesn't matter!"

" _...I don't get it... no one here gets it... what are you even talking about?_ "

Mignon groans, frustrated, and begins to head off for a moment... but she returns seconds later... "This isn't over. Not by a long shot. By the next Rumble, if there is to be one, Lucky Chloe _will_ know the claws of a scorned cat before long!" After a weird little kitty-cat snarl, she skips off to her own path.

* * *

 **Black Orchid, Entrant #1 – First Video Game Rumble Champion**

The Video Game Rumble grand championship belt glistens greatly over the shoulder of the East-European agent, as she gets an interview of her own from one of the associates of those who set up the event.

" _Congratulations on your victory in the Video Game Rumble, Miss Orchid. You've certainly gotten the support from the fans for your devotion and stamina – please tell us, what was your motivation heading into the Rumble, especially entering in the very beginning?_ "

"I'm not one for supporting the establishment, especially if they mean far from well to the world as a whole. From what I've been seeing before and during the show, this seems to be a place where anyone can get an opportunity to be a hero—or villain—of their own story. Everyone's free to kick ass in their own special way; I took it upon myself to test my strength, and look where it's got me." She continues to glance over to her freshly-rewarded championship belt. "I'm an agent of change to the world. From the ashes of a tough past rises the Firecat, able to burn down whatever stands in its way – just like I burned through the competition tonight. What comes next in the journey, is what I can do to keep my hold onto my claim to success..."

* * *

 _ **Thanks to everyone who read the Rumble from start to finish. Be sure to stick around for my next story soon...**_


End file.
